PYONGYANG, August 13 (Itar-Tass) — Japan should give up its claims to the disputed Dokdo islands, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Monday.
Tokyo’s intention over the past eight years to establish control over this territory should be assessed as violation of North Korea’s sovereignty and realization of Japan’s military ambitions in Northeastern Asia, North Korea’s agency reported.
The Dokdo islands, known as Takeshima in Japan, are originally the Korean territory in compliance with the historical and geographical data as well as legal norms, KCNA reported.
Despite tough confrontation between North Korea and South Korea they share common or rather close positions as concerns a group of disputed rocky islets of Dokdo (known in Japan as Takeshima and in international classification as the Liancourt Rocks) that stretches over 0.188 square km and is located in the western part of the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
This uninhabited rocky area became the subject of a territorial dispute after 1945, when the Soviet troops freed South Korea from Japan’s colonial rule. At present, the islets are controlled by South Korea, where it keeps a small police detachment.
Tokyo insisted that South Korea illegally occupied these territories that were annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1905. Seoul and Pyongyang in turn announced that these territories have always been a part of Korea.
On August 10 despite tough objections of the Japanese authorities South Korea’s leader South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak visited these islands. Tokyo described this initiative as an extremely deplorable event.