S. Korea blasts Japan's diplomatic paper claiming disputed islets

South Korea on Friday strongly denounced Japan's annual diplomatic paper that claimed sovereignty over a pair of disputed islets, called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement that South Korea "deplored" the fact that the Japanese government once again made unjustifiable territorial claims to Dokdo, an integral part of South Korea's territory historically, geographically and under international law.

The ministry demanded such claims be withdrawn immediately, urging Tokyo to stop making futile claims to Dokdo and squarely face up to history in efforts to open a new future for Seoul-Tokyo relations.

The statement came after Japan's foreign ministry released its Diplomatic Bluebook earlier to claim its sovereignty over the rocky outcroppings that lie halfway between the two countries.

Seoul plans to summon a Japanese diplomat in Seoul to protest over the diplomatic paper.

South Korea has claimed that Dokdo islets had been forcibly incorporated into Japan's territory before and during the Japanese colonial rule of the Korean peninsula in the first half of the 20th century. Japan returned the islets to South Korea after its defeat in 1945 in the World War II.

Japan has also insisted that their territorial claims are based on historical facts, saying that Japanese fishermen caught sea lions and other marine resources near the area in the 17th century.

The island country said no mentioning of the islets belonging to South Korea in the San Francisco Peace Treaty after WWII indicates the U.S. rejection of Seoul's claim to the islets. Enditem