BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPUBLIC OF KOREA
DATE. Aug. 21, '59
No.1373
ROK Vice Foreign Minister Denounces Jap Actions Sending Self-defense Boats to Peach Line Area
Seoul, Aug. 20 (UPI)-- South Korean Vice Foreign Ministar Kim Dong Jo today bitterly denounced Japan's action in sending a "Self-Defense" boat to patrol the Rhee fishing line as "an aggressive plot" which may throw a bad light on the current ROK -Japan talks.
But he added that Republic of Korea patrol boats would not attempt to capture the Japanese vassals unless they ongaged in fishing operations inside the Rhee Line, a controversial boundary extending 60 miles beyond the Korean coastline.
Kim said free navigation was guaranteed within the Line, established arbitrarily by Presidant Syngmen Rhee in 1952.
(One 310-ton Japanese "Self-defense" vessel left the port of Nagasaki this morning to begin patrelling the Rhee Line. The vessel is unarmed but carries extensive communications equipment to warn Japanese fishing boats of approaching south Korean vessels.)

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