South Korea's presidential office Tuesday lashed out at the Japanese government for spreading false information on President Lee Myung-bak's remarks on the easternmost South Korean islets of Dokdo to the Japanese media.
The accusations came after Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its Internet edition Monday night that President Lee made an ambiguous remark on South Korean sovereignty over Dokdo during his brief meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on the sidelines of an expanded G8 summit in Toyako, northern Japan, last week.
The Japanese daily quoted Lee as telling Fukuda that "now is a difficult time (for Japan to claim Dokdo). Please wait more," after the Japanese leader explained his government's plan to describe Dokdo as part of Japanese territory in its educational guidebookt.
But Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan flatly and angrily denied the Japanese report.
"During the meeting with Fukuda at the G8 summit, Lee clearly said the South Korean government won't accept any Japanese attempt to claim Dokdo, particularly in consideration of the need to promote a future-oriented bilateral relationship," Lee was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.
"President Lee never asked Fukuda to wait more. If Yomiuri's report was compiled on the basis of false information provided by the Japanese government in a bid to instigate an internal rift within South Korea and distort the Dokdo issue, the South Korean government will never tolerate it," said the spokesman.