Seoul will issue a new doctrine defining future relations with Tokyo on Thursday (March 17) as a provincial council in Japan finally approved a controversial ordinance on Wednesday in an apparent move to stake claim to the Dokdo islets.

Despite fierce protests from both Koreas, Shimane Prefectural Council endorsed the measure making Feb. 22 a day to remember Dokdo, a move to which Japan's central government has so far shown a hands-off attitude.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade immediately issued a strong protest against what it called an “infringement of our territorial sovereignty,” calling in a top Japanese diplomat in Seoul to ministry headquarters.

“We once again strongly demand the ordinance be immediately repealed, “ Lee Kyu-hyung, the ministry's spokesperson, said in a statement.

“It is clear that Dokdo is historically, geographically and legally our territory,” he added. “A prefectural ordinance does not affect the current status of the islets at all.”

As part of efforts to strengthen its case, the South Korean government decided to ease the current regulations restricting tourists and other ordinary citizens from entering the rocky, virtually uninhabited islets.

“The government will extensively ease the regulations as long as Dokdo's environment and the safety of visitors are guaranteed,” Yoo Hong-joon, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration, said in a news conference.

Designated the nation's Natural Monument No. 336, Dokdo is a group of volcanic islets located some 87 kilometers east of Ulleung Island of South Korea and 157 kilometers northwest of the Japanese island of Oki, which belongs to Shimane Prefecture.

Japan's provocative move on Dokdo, coupled with a history dispute over a Japanese schoolbook that whitewashes the country's atrocities during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until 1945, touched off diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

The National Security Council (NSC) will convene a standing committee session today to adopt new “keynotes and principles” in dealing with future provocations from Japan.

In the meantime, political circles took their own countermeasures as civic groups and ordinary citizens continued to stage rowdy protests across the country, including one in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.

The National Assembly plans to launch a special committee to protect the country's territorial sovereignty over Dokdo, while holding forums and seminars to devise measures to thwart Japanese provocation.

North Gyeongsang Province, to which Dokdo belongs, severed its ties with Shimane Prefecture in protest against the approval of Takeshima Day ordinance and some civic groups even consider staging a campaign boycotting goods produced in the region.

Officials said Seoul does not want the territorial dispute to blow up at a time when relations with Tokyo are better than ever. The two sides designated 2005 as the “Korea-Japan Friendship Year” to mark the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties.

“We will continue to work for future-oriented relations between the two nations, while responding sternly to any inappropriate speech or actions by Japanese leaders,” Ban Ki-moon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in a press briefing.