(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) South Korea lodged a strong protest against Japan for laying a fresh territorial claim to its easternmost islets of Dokdo, warning it could further compromise their already strained relations. Japan's "Diplomatic Bluebook for 2014" released earlier in the day identified the set of South Korean islets as Japanese territory, vowing to make efforts to resolve the territory issue through international law.
"South Korea expresses strong regret over the Japanese government's outrageous claim laid again through the 'Diplomatic Bluebook' on our own territory," Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. "Such a claim will severely damage bilateral ties, as well as peace and security in Northeast Asia," the statement read. Japan's repeated claims to Dokdo show that the country is still under the spell of its history of imperialist invasions, the ministry said, adding that such nationalist moves will gravely impair the South Korea-Japan relations as well as the peace and security of the Northeast Asian region, state-run Yonhap news agency reported
Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koro Bessho was called in to the ministry headquarters Friday afternoon as part of Seoul's protest of the fresh Dokdo claims. Seoul also denounced Japan's Friday approval of revised local textbooks that contain more aggressive expressions of Japan's sovereignty claims to Dokdo.
The social studies textbooks, to be used from 2015, include maps that label Dokdo with Japanese name Takeshima and its unilateral claim that South Korea illegally occupies the islets. "Our government strongly denounces Japan's approval of new elementary school textbooks, which stepped up provocative (remarks) on Dokdo, compared with those (approved) in 2010," the ministry said in a separate statement. Only three weeks ago, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to "inherit" the apologetic historical perspective of previous cabinets. If Japan opts to teach its elementary students distorted history of its imperialistic past, that would amount to breaking its own promise made by Abe, the ministry said.
"Our government clearly warns Japan that the path for mending South Korea-Japan relations will become longer if the Japanese government continues its provocations regarding Dokdo in the name of textbook examination," the ministry said. Combined with the unresolved issue of Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, the territory claims to Dokdo have severely soured bilateral relations. Japan has renewed its claim to the set of rocky islets after its nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took power last year.
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