Foreign ministry calls in Japanese diplomat over renewed Dokdo claims in defense white paper

SEOUL– The foreign ministry called in a Japanese diplomat Tuesday to lodge a protest after Tokyo renewed its claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in an annual defense policy paper.

The ministry expressed regrets to Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, after Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi reported this year’s defense white paper laying claim to Dokdo during a Cabinet session led by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Tokyo’s claims came as the two countries have been in talks over the possibility of President Moon Jae-in attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games later this month and having talks with Suga to help address protracted rows over wartime history and trade.

Tokyo repeated the claims in the white paper for the 17th consecutive year, dampening the mood for regional cooperation in the lead-up to the Summer Games slated for July 23-Aug. 8.

Later in the day, the defense ministry also called in Col. Takashi Matshmoto, a defense attache at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and lodge a strong protest, according to officials.

Territorial tensions already resurfaced due to the inclusion of the East Sea outcroppings in the map of the route of the Tokyo Olympic torch relay, which had triggered calls here for a boycott of the Games.

The 2021 paper stated that the territorial issue over Dokdo and the four disputed islands also claimed by Russia remains “unresolved.”

This year’s white paper took on more provocative hues, as its cover carried an image of Samurai, a warrior in a pre-modern Japan — evocative of Tokyo’s wartime atrocities, particularly for victims of Japan’s past militarism, like South Korea.

Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between the two neighbors, as Tokyo continues to make the sovereignty claims in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.

South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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