Foreign Ministry summons senior Japanese ambassador to protest ‘Dokdo provocations’

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, on Tuesday to protest Tokyo’s display of Korea’s Dokdo islets as a Japanese island on the official webpage of the Tokyo Olympics. It seems that the South Korean government acted strongly against it as members of the ruling party including presidential candidates raised their voice that they should boycott the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“Our director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs plans to summon the deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in the afternoon today,” said ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam. “We will strongly protest Japan's unfair territorial claims to Dokdo and also stress that an immediate correction be made to the material. We will make it clear again that the government will respond sternly to any kind of provocation by the Japanese government regarding Dokdo.”

It is rather unusual that the ministry notified of its invitation in a public briefing. But it is unclear whether Japan would actually fix it as it still refuses to modify its maps and the International Olympic Committee has repeatedly said to “Talk with the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which s responsible for en regarding the matter.”


Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com