JAPAN-DISPUTED ISLANDS/SOUTH KOREA REAX South Korea protests Japan's claims over islands in revised defence paper

Record ID: 146409

  • Title: JAPAN-DISPUTED ISLANDS/SOUTH KOREA REAX South Korea protests Japan's claims over islands in revised defence paper
  • Date: 21st July 2015
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JULY 21, 2015) (REUTERS) SOUTH KOREAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SPOKESMAN KIM MIN-SEOK WALKING TOWARD PODIUM JOURNALISTS AT NEWS BRIEFING ROOM KIM SPEAKING AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SPOKESMAN KIM MIN-SEOK SAYING: "Japan claimed that Dokdo is Japan's territory (in its annual defence white paper). With regard to this, South Korea
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: At Sea
  • Country: At Sea
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5EQF4IXAVFQ39AK6HT7MU6X6T
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: South Korea on Tuesday (July 21) made an official protest against Japan's annual defence report.
    The report reiterated claims over disputed islands in the East China Sea, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
    The South Korean Defence Ministry said the paper had used the same wording since 2005 in reference to those islands.
    "Japan claimed that Dokdo is Japan's territory (in its annual defence white paper). With regard to this, South Korean Defence Ministry's deputy director-general of international policy summoned Japan's military attache Goto Nobuhisa at 1000 local time (0100GMT). We strongly complained about Japan's territorial claim in 2015 defence white paper and delivered a written protest," South Korean Defence Ministry's spokesman Kim Min-seok, said at news briefing.
    "We have the strong will to defend Dokdo. The Republic of Korea will mobilize all the resources to keep protecting Dokdo as part of South Korean territory," Kim added.
    Ties between the two countries have been frayed by the dispute and by the legacy of Japan's 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula, including the question of compensation and an apology to women forced to serve in military brothels in World War Two.
    The 500-page white paper, approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, for the first time includes satellite images of Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea.
    Japan has no claim in the South China Sea but is in dispute with China over small islands in the East China Sea.
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