 Laying the main stress on historical arguments, the North Korean authorities were less keen on emphasizing the principle of effective possession (a keystone of the South Korean standpoint), for this would have recognized the Republic of Korea as a legitimate state entity.Since both the ROK and the DPRK have been prone to consider themselves as the sole legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula, the North Korean authorities, though they never consented to Japan's territorial claims, often found it inconvenient to side with Seoul against Tokyo in the dispute.In those periods when North Korea was on better terms with Japan than with the ROK (like 1955–1964, 1970–1977, and 1997–1998), North Korean propaganda essentially ignored the problem of the Liancourt Rocks.