S. Korea summons Japanese diplomat over renewed claim to Dokdo in defense white paper

▲ This aerial file photo, taken Sept. 2, 2021, shows South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

S Korea-Japan-defense white paper

S. Korea summons Japanese diplomat over renewed claim to Dokdo in defense white paper

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- Seoul's foreign ministry on Friday called in a Japanese diplomat to protest against Tokyo's renewed claim to South Korea's East Sea islets of Dokdo in an annual defense white paper released earlier in the day.

Seo Min-jeong, director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs of the ministry, summoned Mondo Yamamoto, acting deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a protest after Tokyo adopted its latest defense white paper earlier in the day,

Tokyo renewed its sovereignty claim over Dokdo for the 19th consecutive year in the paper.

Yamamoto did not respond to reporters' questions as he entered the foreign ministry building in central Seoul.

Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between the two neighbors, as Tokyo continues to make the sovereignty claims in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.

South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

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