As soon as his plan to visit the islets was announced, different circles of south Korea were critical of it, saying that the visit was intended to cover up his true colors as a pro-Japanese lackey, calm down the angry public and weather his ruling crisis.

The Japanese government authorities made much fuss about the south Korean chief executive's visit to the islets.

The Japanese prime minister, the foreign minister and others made public appearance one after another to say that "it was regretful" and "they would strongly react to it".

They even made a protest to the south Korean minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They recalled the Japanese ambassador to south Korea and threatened to bring the issue of Tok Islets to the International Court of Justice.

Japan declared a freeze of shuttle diplomacy with south Korea, postponed the annual meeting of financial ministers and started to examine the cancellation of its prime minister's visit to south Korea.

The president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan said "the visit was a denial of the past efforts to improve the Japan-south Korea relations" and "south Korea diplomatically showed it has no ability to administer its state affairs.

Timed to coincide with the Japanese authorities' ruckus, a hooligan threw a piece of brick at the south Korean consulate general in Hiroshima, Japan and ran away, creating furor.

This was Japan's impudent act reminiscent of a thief crying "Stop the thief!"

The south Korean "government", however, postponed the drill for defending Tok Islets slated for mid-August.

It is the unanimous comment in south Korea and abroad that the Japanese reactionaries' impudent territorial claim to inalienable part of the territory of Korea is attributable to the south Korean "government" authorities' low-profile diplomacy and sycophancy towards Japan.