Japan and ROK resumed discussions over the demarcation of their exclusive economic zones (EEZ) around a pair of disputed islets on Monday, after a six-year suspension of such negotiations.

No details as to whether the talks have made any achievements were released at the end of the first day of the two-day talks.

Ichiro Komatsu, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's International Legal Affairs Bureau and top delegate from the Japan side, said that they had a day of "serious and in-depth discussions from the standpoint of international law experts", according to Kyodo News.

Komatsu said Japan confirmed its stance that a 1996 bilateral agreement to delineate their zones without touching on the sovereignty of the islets is the premise for future negotiations but did not say whether ROK agreed.

Park Hee Kwon, director general for the Treaties Bureau of the ROK's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade who heads the ROK delegation, said that "... we told each other our (basic) positions (on our respective EEZs around the islets)," according to Kyodo.

Tokyo and Seoul had held four rounds of EEZ talks between 1996 to 2000, though no apparent achievements were reached.

In April, Tokyo and Seoul closely averted a confrontation over the disputed islands when Japan announced the intention to survey the ocean bed around them, leading ROK to threaten to block its neighbor by force.

The two countries compromised eventually, with Seoul dropping a proposal to submit Korean names for the area to an international oceanographic meeting and Japan calling off the maritime survey. The 5th round of EEZ talks was also part of the agreement.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2006)