Post #5903

🇰🇷🇯🇵Seoul Summons Japanese Diplomat Over Dokdo Claim South Korea's foreign ministry summoned Hirotaka Matsuo, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a formal complaint after Japan renewed its territorial claim to the Dokdo islets in its annual Diplomatic Bluebook. Kim Sang-hoon, director general for Asia-Pacific affairs, delivered the protest in person. Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi submitted the bluebook to a Cabinet meeting on Friday. The document claimed Dokdo as Japanese territory and accused South Korea of continuing illegal occupation of the islets by stationing security forces there. Seoul's foreign ministry issued a statement strongly protesting the claim and urging its immediate withdrawal, asserting that Dokdo is South Korea's territory under international law, history, and geography. South Korea maintains a small police detachment on the islets and exercises effective control over them. #SouthKorea#Japan @asianomics