By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon expressed regret on Thursday over the Japanese activists’ provocative behavior with regards to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Tokto.

``I’d like to make clear that from all points of view _ that is to say historically, geographically and from the viewpoint of international law _ it is obvious that Tokto is a territory of the Republic of Korea,’’ Ban told his weekly press briefing.

``We will deal with all these issues based on our firm position that Tokto is our territory,’’ he added.

A group of four Japanese rightist activists went back to Japan’s mainland around 9:30 a.m., ending its two-day voyage aimed at making a case for Japan’s ownership of the small islets in the East Sea.

They sailed up in a second-day attempt earlier in the morning from Japan’s Oki Islands, where they had arrived aboard a 6-ton boat en route to Tokto the previous day.

A Japanese maritime patrol boat dissuaded the sailors from attempting to go ashore on Tokto and escorted them to the Oki Islands around noon, a foreign ministry official said.

Tokto, called ``Takeshima’’ in Japan, is a group of tiny, rocky and hard-to-inhabit islets located 87 kilometers east of South Korea’s Ullung Island and 157 kilometers northwest of Oki, Japan’s westernmost islands. The sea around Tokto contains rich fishing grounds.

Since 1954, the South Korean Coast Guard has been stationed there as a symbol of Seoul’s ownership, but some politicians and rightist activists of Japan have often claimed its right to the islets.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr