Japan sends envoy to Seoul to avert showdown

TOKYO: Japan said on Friday it would send a senior envoy to South Korea in hopes of reaching a compromise to avoid a flare-up over Tokyo's plans to survey waters controlled by Seoul.

Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi, the top bureaucrat of the ministry, is to fly into Seoul on Friday afternoon amid the latest friction between the wealthy neighbors caused by colonial history.

Meanwhile, South Korea threatened to use all means to stop Japanese ship from surveying the disputes isles, that are claimed by Tokyo but controlled by Seoul, which remains bitter over Japan's 1910-1945 imperial rule.

Yachi will be accompanied by Kenichiro Sasae, who heads the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, and meet with Vice Minister Yu Myung-Hwan, a foreign ministry official said.

They are also likely to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, reports said.              

Japan is planning a survey of the ocean bed around a set of uninhabited islands.     Japan wants to carry out the study to submit a counter-proposal to an international oceanographic meeting in June, which is to consider Seoul's proposal to use Korean names for features on the seabed.