South Korea will spend 400 billion won ($345 million) building a breakwater, a power plant, an underwater observatory and a tunnel on disputed islands claimed by Japan.
Building begins in 2013 with a completion date of 2016. A 200 metre (656-foot) tunnel will connect the largest of the two islands, which are known as Dokdo in Korean, Takeshima in Japanese and the Liancourt Rocks internationally.
The argument over the islands nearly led to a naval incident in April 2006, when South Korean gunboats patrolled a Japanese survey of the islands.
South Korea has upped its claims to the islands off its eastern coast by stationing Coast Guard officers and lighthouse keepers there in addition to two permanent civilian residents, a fisherman and his wife.
The seabed surrounding the rocky islands may have rich natural gas deposits. Japan claim the islands were not part of the treaty handing back land after the Second World War.
Source: Bloomberg
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