South Korea lashes out at Japan's Dokdo claim
Dokdo / Korea Times file
South Korea urged Japan on Tuesday to retract its repeated territorial claim over Dokdo, a pair of rocky outcroppings in the East Sea, saying it will only impede efforts to move forward bilateral ties.
It was a reminder of longstanding diplomatic rifts between the neighboring countries despite a call for firm unity among regional powers to handle Pyongyang's recent peace overtures.
In a statement, South Korea's foreign ministry denounced the description of sovereignty over Dokdo in Japan's yearly foreign policy document, known as the Diplomatic Bluebook, reported to the Cabinet earlier in the day.
The ministry lodged a strong complaint against the Japanese government's "unjustifiable" claim over the ownership of Dokdo, which is effectively controlled by Seoul.
"The Japanese government will have to recognize that reiterating the unjustifiable and preposterous assertion about Dokdo won't be of help at all to the establishment of forward-looking South Korea-Japan relations,' the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
It stressed that Japan's move will have no effect on South Korea's firm territorial sovereignty as clarified by history, geography and international law.
"The government will deal resolutely with any of Japan's provocations related to Dokdo," it said.
The ministry will soon summon Koichi Mizushima, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a formal protest, a government source said.
In the diplomatic paper, Japan also refused to accept "East Sea" as the name to describe the body of water lying between the two sides.
Unlike the 2017 version, it left out the expression that South Korea is "the most important neighbor" to share strategic interests with Japan.
It represents an apparent departure from the Shinzo Abe administration's friendly gestures toward Seoul in dealing with the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago.
In talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Abe requested Seoul's support for Tokyo's efforts to resolve the matter.
South Korea wants its eastern waters to be called the East Sea in international maps and documents.
Japan's naming of the sea has become better known globally as a legacy of its colonial rule of Korea from 1910-45, it points out.
As a realistic alternative, the government has long campaigned for the simultaneous use of the South Korean and Japanese names. (Yonhap)