Chinese, South Korean and Japanese diplomats recently took to the podium of the United Nations General Assembly to reassert their countries' positions on the territorial issues surrounding several small islands in the seas of East Asia.
But the composed manner in which they delivered their remarks belied their countries' long-simmering tensions over the islands, which have come to a near boil in the last few months.
At the center of one heated dispute, between China and Japan, are the Senkaku Islands, which the Chinese call the Diaoyu Islands. In September, Japan's government announced its purchase of three of the islands from their private Japanese owner, inciting protests across China. Soon after, hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels approached the islands to assert China's sovereignty.