Japan protests South Korean military drills near disputed islets
Masaaki Kanai, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo that the exercises were "totally unacceptable and extremely regrettable," the government said.
The islets, called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, are "clearly an integral part of Japanese territory in light of historical facts and international law," the Foreign Ministry said.
Earlier in the day, the South Korean navy said it had carried out the drills, the first since President Lee Jae Myung took office last month, succeeding Yoon Suk Yeol.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that troops did not land on the islets and that the biannual regular training, similar in scale to previous years, was closed to the public, as was the case under the Yoon administration.
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