SEOUL, June 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will submit proposals for Korean names for 10 undersea features in the East Sea this weekend ahead of an International Hydrographic Organization subcommittee meeting next month, a state research body said Friday.

The move seemed a compromise step Seoul adopted after a row erupted with Tokyo. Seoul initially considered submitting names for 14 undersea features in the East Sea, including four located in its exclusive waters zone also claimed by Japan. The move led to a diplomatic confrontation last year.

The National Oceanographic Research Institute decided to submit names for 10 features first and seek the registration for the rest later.

"Considering the subcommittee's rules and procedures, 10 names will be submitted this year and the names for the rest will be submitted at an appropriate time," Yeon Yong-jin, head of the research institute, told reporters.

The South Korean submission will be reviewed at an upcoming meeting of the International Hydrographic Organization subcommittee on undersea features and names, which decides names of ocean floor features around the world.

The 10 ocean floor areas South Korea will propose have no names yet, Yeon said. Among the rest in the disputed territory, two have been named by the Japanese government, he said.

Seoul believes the 14 ocean floor features are within its exclusive waters, but Japan has claimed four of the features are within its exclusive waters.

A government official said the decision to register only 10 features this year was a programmatic choice because once the rest four are rejected this time they will be harder to be acknowledged next time.

"If they fail to get registered because of the objection of Japanese members, it will be more difficult for them to be registered in the next meeting. That will be like choosing what is doomed to fail," the official said, requesting anonymity.

Tension escalated when South Korea planned to submit Korean names for the 14 features on the occasion of the subcommittee meeting in June last year and Japan threatened to survey waters around Korea's Dokdo islets in the East Sea. The Dokdo islets are governed by South Korea, but Japan has laid claim to them.