 "Dokdo Islands. AFP/KOREA COAST GUARD")
In protest of a claim in Japan’s annual diplomatic policy Bluebook about a group of islands between the two nations at the heart of a protracted territorial dispute, South Korea’s foreign ministry called a Japanese envoy on Tuesday, according to Yonhap news.
The deputy head of mission of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Taisuke Mibae, was summoned by the South Korean foreign ministry to voice his disapproval of the article.
Prior to this, South Korea’s foreign ministry declared that it “strongly protests” Japan’s assertion in the Diplomatic Bluebook, stating that the Dokdo islands have historically and geographically been part of its sovereign territory.
The assertion, which is vehemently denied by South Korea, which has long had effective authority over Dokdo through the ongoing stationing of security forces there, was included in the 2024 Diplomatic Bluebook that Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa submitted to the Cabinet.
Japan maintained in this year’s report that South Korea is continuing its “illegal occupation” of Dokdo and that the area is historically and legally Japanese territory.
“The government strongly protests against the Japanese government’s repeated unfair territorial claims over Dokdo, which is clearly our own territory historically, geographically and under international law, as announced in its Diplomatic Bluebook released on April 16, and urges (Japan) to withdraw it immediately,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a commentary.
According to Lim, South Korea’s sovereignty over the islets—which are part of Korea’s intrinsic territory—is unaffected in the slightest by Japan’s claims.
Although relations between the two nations have lately improved, the neighbours disagree about who is sovereign over the islands that sit roughly halfway between them, Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.