Seoul on Wednesday lodged a protest against Japan’s recent release of a video clip repeating its decades-long claim to the Korean islets of Dokdo in the East Sea.

The 90-second clip was uploaded last Wednesday on the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website and YouTube, alongside a separate film intended to reassert Tokyo’s sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, or Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, which are claimed by Beijing.

It reiterates Japan’s longstanding argument that the country established dominium over what it calls Takeshima in the 1600s, reaffirmed by the Cabinet in 1905. It claims Korea “illegally occupied” the windswept islets afterward.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry summoned Takashi Kurai, a minister and deputy chief of the Japanese Embassy here, calling the video an “anachronistic provocation” and demanding it be taken down immediately. It also protested last week through diplomatic channels.

The clip came a few day after the ministry released a 12-minute video countering Tokyo’s claim on its own website and YouTube page.

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

Tokyo incorporated the islets in 1905 in the run up to a full-fledged occupation of the peninsula. Seoul regained control after its 1945 independence, dispatching a small batch of coast guards.

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