South Korea protests Japan's claim to island in school texts

Mar 30, 2011, 9:54 GMT

Seoul - Seoul protested Wednesday against the new edition of a Japanese school textbook which lists South Korean-controlled islands as Japanese territory.

The Foreign Ministry said the Dokdo islands belong to South Korea 'historically, geographically and by international law,' using a phrase it has repeated several times in recent years.

The issue arose again as relations were warming between the two countries, after tensions dating to conflicts in the beginning of last century.

Earlier Wednesday, Tokyo approved the textbooks, which refer to the Dokdo islands east of the peninsula with their Japanese name Takeshima.

The islands, also called Liancourt Rocks, are the easternmost territory under Seoul's administration, and lie approximately half-way between the two countries.

Currently, 10 of Japan's 23 regulation school textbooks say they are Japanese territory, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency. Tokyo's latest decision also allowed the number of textbooks which refer to them as occupied territory to rise from one to four, the report said.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry called on Tokyo to immediately withdraw authorization of the textbooks, which are intended for middle school pupils.

The islands have a surface area of around 0.2 square kilometres, and a current permanent population of three people, according to their South Korea-based website.

The waters surrounding them are rich fishing grounds, and thought to contain valuable underground mineral deposits, in particular natural gas.

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