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South Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday denounced Japan's renewed territorial claim for the Dokdo islets - called Takeshima in Japan - which lie halfway between the two countries.
The ministry said in a statement that the South Korean government strongly protested against the Japanese cabinet's dispatch of a senior-level official to an event hosted by a local Japanese government, which claimed its sovereignty over the Dokdo islets.
The statement said it referred to the latest unfair territorial claim by the Japanese government to the Dokdo islets, urging Tokyo to stop holding the provocative event.
Japanese nationalists march with banners and flags to protest South Korea to return disputed islets prior to the ceremony of Takeshima Day on Feb. 22, 2017.
The Japanese government sent a vice minister-level official to the Takeshima Day event, hosted by Japan's Shimane Prefecture earlier in the day.
The prefecture designated Feb. 22 to be the so-called Takeshima Day in 2005, having held an event since then to claim its administrative sovereignty over the rocky outcroppings.
The Japanese cabinet, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has dispatched a high-ranking official to the event for the sixth consecutive year.
South Korea regained its sovereignty over the Dokdo islets from Japan since its liberation from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean people see Japan's claim for the Dokdo islets as its denial of the atrocities committed by Japan during the colonization.
This photo made available on Monday, April 6, 2015, shows a Japanese social studies textbook with descriptions of the Senkaku Islands and the islands of Takeshima.
The South Korean foreign ministry urged Japan to immediately stop claiming its sovereignty over Dokdo, which it said is South Korea's indigenous territory historically, geographically and according to international laws.
The ministry noted that Japan should squarely and humbly face history as a responsible country.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
