Japan, South Korea fail to agree on sea boundary

TOKYO, June 13 (Reuters) - Talks between Japan and South Korea to resolve a dispute over their maritime economic zones ended today with no agreement, officials said.

But the delegates to the first negotiations on the issue in six years agreed to meet again in September in Seoul.

Tokyo and Seoul narrowly averted a high seas stand-off in April, when Japan said it was sending coast guard vessels to survey the area around disputed islets it refers to as Takeshima. Seoul, which also claims ownership of the islands, calls them Tokto.

Japan has proposed that the two sides establish a joint advance warning system for future marine surveys, in order to avoid any further confrontation, a foreign ministry official in Tokyo said.

The South Korean side said they did not believe the talks were the right forum to discuss such a suggestion, the foreign ministry official said.

Tokyo and Seoul are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including annual visits by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a war shrine seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Koizumi says he visits Yasukuni, where war criminals are honoured alongside other military dead, to pledge peace and honour those who gave their lives, not to glorify war.

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