South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said Saturday that Japan agreed to withdraw its maritime survey plan in the disputed waters after a two-day negotiation.
"The Japanese side has agreed to stop its scheduled underwater topographic survey," Yu, South Korea's chief negotiator for the talks with his Japanese counterpart Shorato Yachi, told a news conference at 8 PM (1100 GMT).
The two sides have also decided to hold talks on the disputed boundaries of their exclusive economic zones as early as May, he added.
The dramatic agreement came just one hour after South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Bae Young-han told reporters that "The talks broke down in the end."
The two-day negotiation, originally set to be finished at about 3:30 PM (0630 GMT) on Saturday, was extended to nearly 7:30 PM(1000 GMT) until both sides compromised at the last moment.
In exchange for Japan's withdrawal of survey plan, South Korea promised to suspend plans that would rename seafloor topography near the Dokdo islets, which both Japan and South Korea claim sovereignty, in June's International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) convention, the Kyodo News reported.
The last-minute compromise over the issue is expected to defuse the escalating tension between South Korea and Japan.
Yachi arrived here on Friday to seek a diplomatic solution to the dispute triggered by Japan's plan to conduct maritime survey in waters near the South Korea-controlled Dokdo islets, called as "Takeshima" by Japan.
South Korea insists that the waters near Dokdo islets are part of its exclusive economic zone and Japan has no rights to conduct such a survey without Seoul's approval.
Two survey ships of Japan's Coast Guard left for the waters near the Dokdo islets on Wednesday.
South Korea deployed more than 20 armed vessels near the Dokdo islets in response to Japan's dispatch of the survey ships and issued stern warnings against Japan.
According to South Korea's Yonhap News, Japan registered its own names for the seafloor near Dokdo with the IHO in the 1970s. Seoul is pushing a plan to register Korean names for the undersea features at the annual IHO meeting in June.
Japanese officials said earlier that Japan brought out the survey plan in a bid to block South Korea's efforts to introduce new names for the seafloor, the Yonhap said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2006)
