[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 14th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly protested by summoning the Charg? d'Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Korea regarding Japan's repeated claims of sovereignty over Dokdo in the defense white paper prepared by the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kim Jeong-han, Director of the Asia-Pacific Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, summoned Soma Hirohisa, Charg? d'Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Korea, on the same day.
Director Kim is believed to have strongly protested Japan's claims of sovereignty over Dokdo contained in the Japanese defense white paper and demanded the immediate withdrawal of those claims.
The Japanese government adopted the 2020 Defense White Paper "Japan's Defense" at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the same day.
This defense white paper describes the security environment surrounding Japan and, as in the previous year, states that "the territorial issues of the Northern Territories and Takeshima (the Japanese name for Dokdo), which are Japan's inherent territories, remain unresolved." This marks the 16th consecutive year that the same content has been repeated. Apart from the text, the Ministry of Defense, which prepared the white paper, also removed Dokdo from several maps and included Takeshima instead.
The defense white paper prepared by the Japanese Ministry of Defense also relatively downgraded defense cooperation with South Korea. It reflected the strained Japan-South Korea relations directly in the defense white paper.
After elaborately explaining the cooperative relationship between the United States and Japan, the defense white paper listed South Korea fourth in describing the status of security and defense cooperation with other countries, following Australia, India, and ASEAN. Until 2018, the Ministry of Defense described security and defense cooperation in the order of Australia, South Korea, and India, but last year it pushed South Korea to a lower priority, and this year it maintained the same order.
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