Foreign ministry to call in Japanese diplomat over Dokdo claim on Tokyo Olympic map

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- The foreign ministry said Tuesday it will call in a senior Japanese diplomat to lodge a protest after a map on the Tokyo Olympic website showed South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as part of Japanese territory. Lee Sang-ryeol, director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs, is expected to express regrets when he meets with Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, later in the day, ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said. "We will strongly protest Japan's unfair territorial claims to Dokdo and also stress that an immediate correction be made to the material," Choi said in a briefing. Dokdo has appeared on the map of the route of the Tokyo Olympic torch relay. Japan rejected mounting calls from South Korea to revise it amid concerns that the inclusion of the islets could undermine the Olympic spirit of peace free from politics. Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between the two neighbors, as Tokyo continues to lay claim to the East Sea islets in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks. South Korea has been in effective control of Dokdo, with a small police detachment, since its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong has called the inclusion of Dokdo on the map "unacceptable," vowing to address the renewed unjust claims "as strongly as possible. elly@yna.co.kr (END)