SEOUL, Apr 27 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea lodged a strong protest today, against Japan’s renewed territorial claims to the Dokdo islets, called Takeshima by Japan, lying halfway between the two countries.
Seoul foreign ministry, said, the government strongly protests against Japan, over its repeated futile claims to Dokdo, which is “explicitly our inherent territory historically, geographically and by international law,” through the diplomatic blue book.
It gravely urged Tokyo to immediately retract the claims, saying, South Korea will sternly deal with any provocation of Japan, against the country’s easternmost islets.
The ministry summoned Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese embassy in Seoul, to protest against Japan’s annual foreign policy paper, according to local media.
Since 2005, Japan has laid territorial claims to the rocky outcrops every year, in its diplomatic blue and defence white papers.
South Korea restored its sovereignty over Dokdo after the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonisation. Seoul has since been in control of the islets, with a police detachment deployed.
South Koreans see Japan’s territorial claims to the islets as its denial of colonial history, as Dokdo was the very first territory that was forcibly occupied by Japan.– NNN-YONHAP
