Japan protests ‘regrettable’ South Korean plan to conduct military drill near disputed isles
Japan has lodged a protest with South Korea over its plan to conduct a military drill around the Seoul-controlled, Tokyo-claimed islets in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday.
[The drill] is unacceptable in light of our country’s stance regarding the sovereignty of Takeshima
The drill, starting next Monday, “is unacceptable in light of our country’s stance regarding the sovereignty of Takeshima,” Kishida told reporters, referring to the islets known as Dokdo in South Korea. “It is regrettable.”
Kenji Kanasugi, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, lodged the protest on Wednesday with a senior diplomat at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo, a Japanese government source said. The South Korean military conducts such exercises near Takeshima a few times a year. In December, some 10 South Korean marines landed on one of the two disputed islets, prompting a strong protest by Japan.
Japan has said the erection of statues symbolising the women in front of Japanese diplomatic facilities in South Korea, including one in December, goes against the spirit of a 2015 bilateral agreement to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the protracted dispute over the issue.
