South Korea prints 15,000 brochures to promote claim to East Sea islands disputed with Japan
Thousands of brochures to be distributed to push its side in East Sea dispute with Japan
PUBLISHED : Monday, 23 February, 2015, 1:11am
UPDATED : Monday, 23 February, 2015, 1:11am
Agencies in Tokyo and Seoul
South Korean students perform during a rally against Japan's Takeshima Day in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.Photo: AP
Dokdo Islets in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.Photo: Xinhua
South Korea has published thousands of new brochures to promote its claim to a pair of islands disputed by Japan, for distribution at diplomatic missions and international schools next month, a move that could further sour ties between the US allies.
About 15,000 copies of the brochure, published in Korean and English and titled "The East Sea and Dokdo Islets Seen in Maps and Photos," will be distributed next month at schools run by the South Korean embassies abroad and at private international schools for children of Korean parents.
Seoul controls the islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) which it calls Dokdo. They are known in Japan as Takeshima.
The row over the islands intensified after then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made a surprise visit to them in 2012.
According to the Education Ministry, they will be the first publicity material that extensively describes the history of the small outcroppings, which lie in waters between the two countries, for audiences abroad, though a simpler version had previously been circulated.
The release of the news came yesterday as dozens of South Korean civic group members protested in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to denounce an annual ceremony held in the Japanese prefecture of Shimane to stress Japan's claim to the South Korean-controlled islets.
The ceremony has been held by the prefectural government since 2006 after it had designated February 22 as "Takeshima Day" in 2005.
The protesters called for Tokyo to cancel the designation, end the annual event and stop attempting to distort history through textbooks.
One man threw "a plastic bottle filled with filth" at the embassy, Yonhap reported, adding that he was taken away by the police.
Yohei Matsumoto, parliamentary vice-minister in the cabinet office, attended the ceremony and said the government was working to achieve a peaceful resolution of the problem.
But he reiterated Tokyo's position that the islets are part of Japan's sovereign territory.
South Korea, which stations coastguard officers on the tiny islands, protested against the annual ceremony, issuing a statement condemning the move as a "provocation" and calling it "extremely deplorable".
Noting that it was the third consecutive year for Tokyo to send a high-level representative to attend the annual ceremony, the Foreign Ministry accused Japan of repeating its "regressive behaviour" of denying its history of imperialism and invasion of the Korean peninsula.
Relations between the two countries are currently at their lowest ebb for years due to the territorial row, and disputes linked to Japan's harsh 1910-45 rule over the Korean peninsula.
Kyodo and Agence France-Presse
