The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Seoul

South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo on Sunday accused Japan of damaging bilateral ties and putting regional peace at risk with its renewed claim to a group of Seoul-controlled islets.

Han, meeting with ruling party lawmakers, rejected Tokyo's new education guidelines calling for "a deeper understanding" of Japan's claims to the islets-called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea-lying midway between them. "This is not only damaging the amicable South Korea-Japan relationshipt but also undermining peace in Northeast Asia by letting the future generations repeat the distorted history," Han said.

The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) said in a statement after the talks with Han that Seoul would make the rocky islets sufficiently habitable for people to live on, helping to thwart Tokyo's territorial claims.

"The party, the government and the (presidential) Blue House reached a concensus that it is very important to make Dokdo inhabited islands as one of the concrete countermeasures," it said, without elaborating.

Also discussed at the talks was the possibility of exploring minerals in the seabeds, allowing wider public access, building a maritime hotel to promote tourism and sending marines to the islets, it said.