Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s revival of Tokyo’s claim to islets whose symbolic weight far outweighs their size has rekindled an old dispute that may play well with nationalist supporters at home, but risks derailing hard-won diplomatic progress abroad.
Seoul swiftly shot down Takaichi’s assertion last week that the rocky outcrops, known as Takeshima to Japan and Dokdo to South Korea, belong to Tokyo.
“Dokdo is clearly our inherent territory,” the presidential office said in a statement on December 9, dismissing the Japanese leader’s remarks in the Diet that same day as unjustified and reiterating that “there is no territorial dispute”.
Advertisement
It added that Seoul would “sternly and firmly respond” to any challenges to its sovereignty and insisted the islets were an integral part of Korean territory “historically, geographically and under international law”.
The islets, also known internationally as the Liancourt Rocks, have long been a flashpoint in Japan-South Korea relations.
Advertisement