South Korea To Research Seabed Near Disputed Liancourt Rocks

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published August 12, 2019 | 05:00 PM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2019) South Korea plans to explore seabed near the Liancourt Rocks, a group of islets at the heart of the nation's territorial row with neighboring Japan, local media said Monday.

The aim of the research is to compare samples from the contested rocky islets in the Sea of Japan to those from the nearby Ulleung Island, the Yonhap news agency said.

The date of the mission has not been set yet.

The Liancourt Rocks � called Dokdo Islands by Seoul or Takeshima Islands by Tokyo � lie almost equidistant from Japan and South Korea, which maintains a small police force there.

Marine scientists from the state Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology will depart for Ulleung this week for a four-day mission to collect rocks from the seafloor using an underwater robot.