By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's coastguard said on Tuesdayit had stepped up patrols near islands at the centre of aterritorial dispute with Japan, a day after Seoul recalled itsambassador in anger at new Japanese claims to the rockyoutcrops.
The fight over the desolate islands, known as Dokdo inKorean and Takeshima in Japanese, has been a persistentirritant in relations between the neighbours, rekindlingmemories in South Korea of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule overthe peninsula.
"We're beefing up security measures in relation to Japan'sdecision to describe Dokdo as its territory in its textbooks,"a coastguard official said.
On Monday, Tokyo said it had told Seoul that it would referin a middle school teaching guide to the islands as Japaneseterritory, triggering angry rallies outside Japan's embassy inSeoul and official protests from South Korea's government.
"As a preventive measure against any possible attempt byJapanese right-wing elements sailing to Dokdo, the coastguardhas strengthened our early warning system," the coastguard saidseparately in a statement.
The islands are controlled by South Korea, which keeps apolice presence there, and lie roughly equidistant from themainland of both countries.
The surrounding waters are popular with squid fishermenwhile the seabed in the area may have deposits of a natural gashydrate that could be worth billions of dollars.
Japanese government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura on Tuesdaycalled for a calm response to overcome differences.
"Right now Japan and South Korea have entered a new age,and efforts should be made not to interrupt this," he said.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who took office inFebruary, pledged to better ties with major trading partnerJapan after his predecessor Roh Moo-hyun tried to score pointsat home by fanning the flames of lingering anti-Japansentiment.
Analysts said that while South Koreans may rally around theflag in this dispute, they may not rally around Lee.
"People tend to regard the Dokdo case as his diplomaticmistake or failure. Even though people are united againstJapan, it is not likely to boost his popularity," said KangWon-taek, a political science professor at Soongsil Universityin Seoul.
The public is likely to see his call to get closer to Tokyoas just one more policy blunder for his new government, whichhas seen its support rate fall after bungling a U.S. beef dealand personnel appointments, Kang said.
Apart from the spat with South Korea over the islands,Japan also has separate territorial fights over different setsof islands with Russia, China and Taiwan.
(With additional reporting by Kim Junghyun in Seoul andElaine Lies in Tokyo)
(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
