July 22, 2015 11:00
Japan's annual defense policy paper submitted to the Cabinet Tuesday repeats Tokyo's flimsy colonial claim to Korea's Dokdo islets for the 11th year running.
The government here condemned the white paper and said it "nullifies efforts to open a new future for the bilateral relationship while squarely facing history" on the 50th anniversary diplomatic ties.
In the white paper, Tokyo says territorial issues of the Northern Territories or Kuril Islands and Dokdo "remain unresolved."
A map depicting Japan's major military installations shows Dokdo marked by its Japanese name, and includes the airspace over Dokdo as part of its territorial airspace.
The Foreign Ministry here said Tokyo's "inclusion of its flimsy claim to Dokdo in the defense white paper still denies its imperialist history and the invasion of the Korean Peninsula."
The ministry summoned the deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy, Kenji Kanasugi, for a drubbing.
The white paper also stresses the threat of North Korean provocations and Tokyo's opposition to China's naval aspirations. It notes that North Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile in May and warns of the possibility of the North developing a nuclear missile capable of hitting Japan.
The white paper also dwells on a growing threat from China, especially Beijing's push to develop a gas field in the East China Sea and turn reefs and rocks in the South China Sea into artificial islands to build military bases.
China also blasted the document. The state-run People's Daily warned Tokyo to "refrain from rash acts." China's Foreign Ministry said Japan has no right to comment on the developments.
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