TOKYO >> Japan renewed its claim on a disputed island in the Sea of Japan held by South Korea at an annual event on Monday, easing tensions between neighbors whose relations were already strained over Seoul’s demands for compensation for Japanese actions in World War II, increased.
Monday is the anniversary of the day Japan placed the island under the jurisdiction of Western Japanese prefecture Shimane in 1905. Japan has held the annual ceremony since 2006 in an effort to intensify its claim over the island.
The uninhabited island in rich fishing areas on the northwest coast of Shimane is called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea. It has been effectively controlled by South Korea since the 1950s.
Yoshiaki Wada, a cabinet official representing the central government during the ceremony in Matsue’s prefectural capital, accused South Korea of ”illegal occupation that has no legal basis whatsoever under international law.”
“This is completely unacceptable,” he said.
The Shimane government, Tatsuya Maruyama, criticized South Korean movements on the island, including military exercises as “an attempt to make the occupation of Takeshima an accomplished fact”, and called on the Japanese government to resolve the dispute by by means of diplomacy.
South Korea’s foreign ministry has accused Japan of pursuing ‘futile provocations’ by holding the event.
In a statement, he demanded that the event be abolished and said it was clear that the island was South Korean territory due to ‘history, geography and international law’.
In Tokyo, Katsunobu Kato, secretary general of the cabinet, said Japan was determined to protect its territorial rights.
“Takeshima is clearly Japanese territory under international law and in the light of historical facts,” he said. “To solve the Takeshima problem, it is important to gain the correct understanding of the international community.”
Relations between the two countries have fallen to their worst levels over the rulings of the South Korean court which, according to Japan, make ‘illegal’ claims for compensation for the sexual abuse of Korean women and the use of forced Korean workers during World War II.
The dispute over forced labor, stemming from a ruling by the South Korean Supreme Court in 2018, escalated into a trade dispute and threatened Seoul with a 2016 military intelligence deal with Japan, a key component of their regional defense cooperation with the United States, to delete. State.
According to Japan, all wartime compensation issues were resolved under a 1965 treaty normalizing relations with South Korea, in which Japan provided $ 500 million in economic aid to the country.