 |
| ▲ South Korea's national flag, Taegeukgi, is spread over a dock on Dokdo on June 30, 2025, in this file photo provided by professor Seo Kyoung-duk of Sungshin University. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Dokdo-defense drills
S. Korea holds 1st regular defense drills around Dokdo under Lee gov't
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea conducted regular defense drills near its easternmost islets of Dokdo on Thursday, a military official said, in what marked the first such exercise held under the Lee Jae Myung government.
"The Navy and the Coast Guard conducted the drills in the East Sea," the official said, stressing they are part of regular drills aimed at defending South Korea's territory and its people's properties.
In a similar scope compared with the biannual drills conducted last year, the defense drills did not involve the Marine Corps.
Some of the drills in the past involved fighter jets and landing maneuvers on the islets, but they have taken place in a relatively low-key approach recently.
Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between South Korea and Japan, as Tokyo continues to make sovereignty claims in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.
The latest drills came just two days after Seoul's foreign and defense ministries called in officials from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to lodge complaints after Tokyo reiterated its territorial claim to the rocky islets in this year's defense white paper.
In the past, Japan lodged complaints over the South's defense drills through diplomatic channels.
South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
South Korea launched the defense drills in 1986 and has staged them twice a year since 2003. The previous exercise took place in December.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
