Look who is making a visit to the Dokdo islets:

South Korea’s ruling party chairman made a surprise visit to a string of disputed islets Monday and said the country must defend them at any cost, amid heightened tensions with Japan over rival claims to the territory.

Chung Dong-young’s visit came as a top Japanese diplomat was set to arrive in South Korea to try to repair bilateral ties battered by recent spats over the islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.

Japan’s Senior Vice Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhisa Shiozaki was scheduled to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon later Monday.

Chung, a former unification minister, warned that Japanese moves to deny South Korea’s sovereignty over the islets would bring unhappy results to both sides, and that Japan will be held responsible.

“Dokdo cannot be the subject of any negotiation or dispute,” Chung said on his one-day trip to the islets, according to a transcript provided by the Uri Party.

This is really no surprise that Chung is trying to play to Korean nationalism to improve his own political standing. As the former South Korean Unification Minister he was one of the masters of using anti-Americanism to improve his own political standing as well. If Chung likes Dokdo so much how about he just stays out there and doesn’t come back.

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