S. Korea files protest with Japan over repeated Dokdo claims in annual diplomatic book

SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- The foreign ministry called in a senior Japanese diplomat on Tuesday to lodge a protest after Tokyo's latest annual diplomatic book contained its repeated territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Kim Jung-han, director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry called in Hirohisa Soma, a senior official from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to express regret over the book's content and urge Tokyo to retract the claims.

Soma walked into the ministry building at about 11 a.m. without taking questions from reporters.

In the 2020 Blue Book reported to its Cabinet, Tokyo insisted that Dokdo is Japan's "inherent territory historically and by international law" and that South Korea is still "illegally occupying it."

Japan's latest claim to Dokdo comes as bilateral relations remain chilled after months of discord stemming from pending wartime issues, including the unresolved issue of compensating Korean forced labor victims. South Korea was under Japan's colonial rule from 1910-45.

South Korea rejects the claims because the country regained independence from Japan's colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.

Since 1954, South Korea has stationed a small police detachment on Dokdo.

elly@yna.co.kr
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