hankyoreh

By Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent

Following a July 31 cabinet vote, the Japanese government announced its 2012 Defense White Paper, which includes the claim that the Dokdo islets are Japan’s integral territory.

Seoul immediately issued a Foreign Ministry statement condemning the claim. The ministry also summoned the minister of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in protest.

In the White Paper’s very first section entitled “Security Environment Surrounding Japan,” it says, “Japan also confronts unresolved territorial disputes over the Northern Territories [the Kuril Islands] and Takeshima [Dokdo], both of which are integral parts of Japanese territory.”

In a map depicting areas of Japanese sovereignty Dokdo is marked as “Takeshima,” as it was last year.

Despite Korea‘s repeated protests, the Japanese government has kept this line unchanged for eight years since it was first included in 2005, when Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party was in power.

In a briefing for local and foreign journalists the day before the paper was announced, Japan’s Ministry of Defense stressed the Japanese government’s unwavering position on the matter, noting that the White Paper “has described Takeshima [the Japanese name for Dokdo] and the Northern Territories as integral parts of Japanese territory since 2005.”

This is the first time Japan has included territorial issues, including Dokdo, in press material for foreign journalists.

The Japanese government has been strengthening its claims to Dokdo since 2008, with the Japanese Ministry of Education instructing that Japan‘s claims to Dokdo be included in middle and high school textbooks.

In a protest statement Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tae-young said, “The Government of the Republic of Korea once again makes clear the plain fact that Dokdo is an indigenous territory of the ROK over which it exercises full territorial sovereignty, and that it will not tolerate any unjust claim by Japan to the territory.”

The statement shows a stronger response than last year, when the government released an “editorial” on the matter.

The government also summoned Kurai Takashi, the minister and deputy chief of mission in the Japanese embassy, to express its regret and verbally convey the government’s opposition.

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