Seoul protests Tokyo's renewed Dokdo claims
Kurai Takashi, Japan’s deputy chief of mission in Seoul, leaves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in downtown Seoul after being summoned by the ministry in protest of Japan’s renewed claims over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in its annual defense paper, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Chung Min-uck
Seoul “strongly” criticized Tokyo’s renewed territorial claims on Dokdo in its annual defense report. The report, also known as the defense white paper, was published early on Tuesday.
In protest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Kurai Takashi, Japan’s deputy chief of mission in Seoul and released an official statement.
“South Korea strongly protests Japan’s re-inclusion of territorial claims to Dokdo, which is clearly indigenous territory of Korea in terms of history, geography and international law, in the 2013 Defense of Japan,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said in the statement.
Cho further urged Japan “to take immediate corrective measures” and “once again make clear the plain fact that Dokdo is an indigenous territory of South Korea over which it exercises full territorial sovereignty, and that it will not tolerate any unjust claim from Japan to the territory.”
Japan has included unjustified claims on the islets in its defense paper since 2005, undermining its ties with South Korea.
The Defense Ministry also lodged a protest against the repeated claims.
“The Japanese government will not be able to further develop bilateral military ties with South Korea if it doesn't give up claims to Dokdo,” the ministry said in a statement. “We will sternly respond to any attempts to challenge South Korea's sovereignty over Dokdo and tightly guard our territory.”
Japan’s periodic claims of sovereignty over Dokdo underline the difficulties that South Korea faces in trying to repair their frosty relations.
Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water that divides the Korean Peninsula and Japan, has long been a thorn in relations between the two countries. South Korea keeps a small police detachment on the islets, maintaining effective control of them.