SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Tuesday denounced Japan's territorial claims to the Dokdo islets, a pair of rocky islets called Takeshima in Japan, lying halfway between the two countries.
The South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement that the government strongly protests against the Japanese prefecture of Shimane holding a so-called Takeshima Day event and the Japanese cabinet sending its senior officials to the event.
Calling the event the repetition of "futile provocation" over its easternmost islets of Dokdo, the ministry urged Japan to immediately abolish the annual event.
The ministry said Dokdo is an inherent territory of South Korea historically, geographically and by international law, noting that the Japanese government should immediately stop its unjust claim to the islets and face up to history with a humble attitude.
Japan's Shimane prefecture designated Feb. 22 as the Takeshima Day in 2005, and has held an annual event since then to claim its administrative sovereignty over the islets.
South Korea restored its sovereignty over Dokdo after the Korean Peninsula's liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonization. Seoul has since been in effective control of the islets, with a small police detachment deployed.
South Koreans see Japan's territorial claims to the islets as the denial of the colonial history as Dokdo was the very first territory that was forcibly occupied by the Imperial Japan. ■