South Korea elated by U.S. move on disputed islets

SEOUL (Reuters) - Elation replaced a sense of betrayal in South Korea on Thursday after Washington reversed how it referred to the ownership of a cluster of rocks at the centre of a war of words between Seoul and Tokyo.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which had listed the desolate islands as South Korean territory, recently changed its designation of them as not belonging to any state, sparking outrage in Seoul.

The change came just as South Korea was berating Japan for telling its schools to teach that the islets were Japanese territory.

"The rare swift action indicates President (George W.) Bush is fully aware of South Koreans' sentiment and reflects the deep trust and friendship between the two countries' leaders," the presidential Blue House said in a statement after the U.S. agency announced it would reverse its change.

Relations between the two allies has looked strained in recent months by mass protests in South Korea against an agreement to resume imports of U.S. beef, long banned over fears of mad cow disease.

The latest decision comes less than a week before Bush is due to visit Seoul for talks with President Lee Myung-bak who has seen his popularity plunge over the beef issue and a number of other perceived policy stumbles.

Analysts said Bush was loathe to antagonize South Korea ahead of his visit and wanted to show support for the conservative ex-CEO Lee who had gone out of way to open up the country to U.S. beef and had taken a tough stand with U.S. arch foe North Korea.

Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council, told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that after the United States was contacted by high-level South Korean government officials, Bush had ordered U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to look into the matter.

South Korea controls the lonely islands, called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese and which lie about halfway between the two countries' mainlands.

Japan and South Korea both claim historical rights to the cluster of rocks, which have little obvious economic value but are in the midst of fishing grounds and may sit above valuable deposits of natural gas hydrate.

(Reporting by Kim Junghyun and Jack Kim; Editing by Valerie Lee)