Maruyama Hodaka twitter on August 31.

By Song Jong Ho

Japanese politicians have become ever more undisguised in their claims to others' territories.

Shortly ago, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives from a conservative opposition party in an SNS criticized south Korean national assemblymen for protesting against Japan's measure for export regulation on Tok Islets, saying that “the Self-Defence Forces troops should be dispatched to drive the illegal occupants out of the islets and that Japan cannot but retake them by fighting a war”. A few months ago he talked about war on a visit to the Kuril Islands of Russia, causing considerable controversy.

Defence Minister Iwaya condemned the recent military drill staged by the south Korean army to defend the islets, describing it as “unacceptable and very regrettable”. And he shamelessly demanded it stop military exercises in the future, arguing Tok Islets are an inherent part of Japanese territory from the historical and legal point of view.

It is the world-recognized fact that the islets are an inseparable part of Korean territory and many historical records prove it.

A few years ago Korean maps produced by the US and the UK around the start of the Korean war (June 1950) were made public. The maps were made by the two countries independently, but both marked Tok Islets as part of the Korean territory.

In 1902 the home minster of the Korean feudal government sent a document to the magistrate of Uldo County in charge of Ullung and Tok islands and ordered him to levy taxes on all freight entering the islands. The list of Japanese merchants, who came to Tok Islets to find ear shells and made and signed agreements to pay export duties to the magistrate around 1900, still remains in south Korea. A document of the Japanese foreign ministry which records the fact that Japanese merchants paid export duties was also discovered.

There are lots of other historical materials that prove it.

Japan, however, argues that Shimane Prefecture admitted Tok Islets to it in 1905, basing its territorial claim largely upon it.

But experts comment that many historical documents have been made known, which prove by international law that Korea had, in effect, ruled the islets and they had belonged to Korea much earlier.

This notwithstanding, Japanese politicians openly argue for territorial expansion. It shows that Japan has overstepped the mark and reached an extremely dangerous phase in its wild ambition for overseas reinvasion.

(Pyongyang Times - September 13, 2019)