Foreign Ministry summons Japanese official over defense white paper


Seoul strongly protested Tokyo’s fresh claim on Tuesday to the South Korean islets of Dokdo in its latest defense white paper.

In the annual document approved by its cabinet, Japan identified the rocky islets as its territory and said the ownership issue “still remains unsolved.” The description has not been changed since 2005.

The Korean government dismissed the claim as “unacceptable,” urging an immediate rectification.

“We strongly protest Japan’s inclusion once again in its 2012 white paper of territorial claims over Dokdo, which is clarified as our territory by history, geography and international law,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Cho Tae-young said in a statement. 

Later in the day, the ministry summoned Takashi Kurai, a minister at the Japanese Embassy here.

The Defense Ministry issued a similar statement and delivered a complaint letter to Tokyo.

Tokyo has for decades laid claim to Dokdo, which it calls Takeshima, via educational guidelines and defense papers. Korea has maintained control since 1953 with a small batch of maritime police officers.

Located in the East Sea between the two countries, the set of small volcanic islets lies in ample fishing grounds believed to hold large gas deposits and other resources.

Seoul’s reaction to the new claim is deemed tougher than previous years when the ministry called in the embassy’s lower-ranking councilors and released comments under an unspecified official’s name rather than spokesman’s statement.

“We’ve been using decisive expressions because it’s a territorial problem. But we’ve decided to step up the level of countermeasures this time in light of Japan’s recent series of offensive steps in the Dokdo issue,” a senior ministry official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.

He cited Japan Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba’s parliamentary speech in January that contained the country’s Dokdo claim for the first time this year, the publication of new high school textbooks that renewed its stance and a larger-than-usual ceremony for its “Takeshima Day” on April 11 in Tokyo.

Despite Seoul’s efforts to keep the issue from affecting its ties with Tokyo, the latest assertion is feared to overshadow their strategic and economic cooperation and commitment to international efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Public sentiment has grown bitter toward the neighboring archipelago nation due to its persistent distortion of historical facts and failure to apologize to forced laborers from 1940-45 colonial rule and recent moves toward nuclear armament through legislative amendments.

In late June, the two countries called off the signing of their first military pact aimed at facilitating information sharing amid vehement opposition by civic groups and opposition lawmakers.

Last August, the Korean government turned three Japanese lawmakers back home upon their arrival at a Korean airport. The hardliners, from Japan’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party, were attempting to visit Dokdo, repeating the country’s six-decade claim.

Prior to that incident, the Japanese government temporarily banned officials from using Korean Air following the flag carrier’s test flight in June 2011 of its Airbus A380 jetliner over Dokdo, which it considered “provocative.”

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)