MAR 24,
2017
KYODO
Japan has
lodged a protest with South Korea over its reported plan to conduct a military drill
around a pair of Seoul-controlled, Tokyo-claimed islets in the Sea of Japan,
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday.
The drill,
which will start Monday, “is unacceptable in light of our country’s stance
regarding the sovereignty of Takeshima,” Kishida told reporters, referring to
the islets known as Dokdo in South Korea. “It is regrettable.”
Kenji
Kanasugi, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau,
lodged the protest Wednesday with a senior diplomat at the South Korean Embassy
in Tokyo, a Japanese government source said.
The South
Korean military conducts training exercises near the rocky outcroppings a few
times a year. In December, about 10 South Korean Marines landed on one of the
two islets, prompting Japan to lodge a strong protest.
The drill
comes as the relationship between Japan and South Korea remains strained by the
long-standing “comfort women” issue. The term is Japan’s euphemism for the
females forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during the war.
Japan has
said the erection of statues symbolizing the women in front of Japanese
diplomatic facilities in South Korea, including one in December, goes against
the spirit of a 2015 bilateral agreement to “finally and irreversibly” resolve
the protracted dispute over the issue.
The
re-emergence of a statue that was reportedly taken down when it first appeared
outside the Japanese Consulate in Busan in December prompted Tokyo to recall
its ambassador. Opponents in South Korea have meanwhile criticized the accord
for not fulfilling their key demand that the Japanese government admit legal
responsibility for compensation.
Original
post: japantimes.co.jp
Islets known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima by Japan
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