Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Friday criticized Tokyo’s claim to Korea’s easternmost islets in a new annual defense white paper adopted by the Japanese cabinet on Friday.

In a Friday statement, Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said the islets, called Dokdo, are “clearly an integral part” of Korean territory “historically, geographically and under international law” and called on Tokyo to “immediately withdraw” its claim.

He added that Japan’s claim to Dokdo would not have any impact on Korean sovereignty over the islets, but could negatively affect bilateral relations.

“The Japanese government should be clearly aware that repeatedly making unjust claims to Dokdo is in no way conducive to our efforts to establish a future-oriented relationship between the ROK and Japan,” he said, referring to South Korea by the acronym for its official name, Republic of Korea.

Both Korea’s Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry also summoned officials from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Friday to protest Japan’s claim.

Seo Min-jeong, the Foreign Ministry’s director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs, summoned Mondo Yamamoto, the Japanese Embassy’s acting deputy charge d’affaires, to lodge a protest.

Yamamoto did not respond to reporters’ questions as he entered the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in central Seoul.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry also summoned Japanese defense attache Kotaro Hyodo to express its displeasure with the territorial claim to Dokdo made by Tokyo in the new defense white paper.

The document referred to the islets, which Japan calls Takeshima, as one of Japan’s “unresolved” territorial issues alongside the four southernmost islands in the Russian-controlled Kuril Island chain, which Tokyo claims as its Northern Territories.

In a map that was included in the white paper, Japan also characterized a flight by Russian military aircraft in 2019 in the skies above Dokdo as an incursion into its territorial airspace.

Dokdo has long been a thorn in relations between Korea and Japan, which lays claim to the islets in policy documents, public statements and school textbooks.

Korea argues its sovereignty over Dokdo is rooted in centuries-old records and maps, which often show the islets and neighboring Ulleung Island as Korean territory.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry and Korean historians also say Japan recognized Dokdo as Korean territory during most of the 18th and 19th centuries following an altercation between Japanese and Korean fishermen in 1696.

But in 1905, the Japanese cabinet issued an order annexing the islets based on the view that they were terra nullius, or unclaimed territory.

The decision was protested by Korean officials before the country itself was annexed by Japan in 1910.

After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Tokyo’s administration over Dokdo was suspended by order of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), who restricted Japanese access to within 12 miles of the islets.

In the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, which officially concluded the state of war between Japan and the Allies, Tokyo formally renounced its claim to the Korean Peninsula as well as Jeju, Geomun and Ulleung islands.

Although the treaty did not define sovereignty over Dokdo, it mentioned in a memorandum that Japan’s “administrative separation” from the islets remained active.

Meanwhile, SCAP transferred control over Dokdo in 1946 to the U.S. military administration in southern Korea, which then handed control over the islets to the Korean government when it launched in 1948.

Korea has since maintained a small police detachment on the islets to enforce its title to Dokdo.

Although Japan proposed to bring the issue before the International Court of Justice on multiple occasions, Korea has refused, arguing there is no dispute to settle with regard to sovereignty over Dokdo.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]