South Korea slams Japan event asserting island sovereignty

South Korea on Sunday protested a Japanese Government event commemorating a cluster of disputed islands between the two countries, calling the move an unjust assertion of sovereignty over its territory.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said it strongly objected to the Takeshima Day event held by Japan's Shimane prefecture and to the attendance of a senior Japanese Government official, urging Japan to immediately abolish the ceremony.

The tiny islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, which controls them, have long been a source of tension between the two neighbours, whose relations remain strained by disputes rooted in Japan's colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

"Dokdo is clearly South Korea's sovereign territory historically, geographically and under international law," the ministry said, calling on Japan to drop what it described as groundless claims and to face history with humility.