The guideline called for teaching students in the country's elementary and middle schools that Dokdo belongs to Japan.

"We cannot but deplore Japan's repeated claims to our territory, Dokdo, in its draft version of a revised guideline... and we demand its immediate withdrawal," the foreign ministry said.

The ministry noted that it will not tolerate any provocation in regard to Dokdo which is "our territory historically, geographically and by international law."

The ministry said that it called in the Japanese embassy minister to lodge an official complaint.

The guideline, which is usually revised every 10 years, serves as a state-enforced standard for educating students and writing textbooks. It will be applied to elementary school students from 2020 and to middle school students from 2021.

Currently, Japan is teaching elementary and middle school students in all social studies textbooks that Dokdo is its territory. But this is the first time that Tokyo specified the claim in the legally binding educational guideline.

Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the East Sea, has long been a source of tension between the neighbors.

South Korea has kept a small police detachment on Dokdo since its liberation from Japan in 1945 and has made clear that Tokyo's claims are utterly groundless.

Japan has been seeking to bolster its territorial claims to the islets in school curricula. In 2008, it stated for the first time in its educational handbooks -- lower-level of guidelines -- that Dokdo is part of its territory. South Korea called its ambassador to Tokyo in protest.

Experts say that the latest revision of the education guideline will not likely change the way students in Japan are taught given that the existing textbooks lay claims to the islets.

Currently all four types of textbooks authorized for use in elementary schools in Japan and all 19 textbooks for high school students describe Dokdo as Japanese territory.

The latest controversy, however, expected to add to the ongoing diplomatic friction over a statue recently erected in front of the Japanese consulate in South Korea's southern port city of Busan.

Tokyo demanded the immediate removal of the statue symbolizing its wartime sexual slavery of Korean women and called home its ambassador in protest last month. The ambassador has not come back to Seoul. (Yonhap)