SEOUL - The South Korean foreign ministry on Tuesday strongly protested at Japan's repeated territorial claims to disputed islets, called Dokdo here and Takeshima in Japan.

The protest came after the Japanese government, in its 2025 Diplomatic Bluebook released earlier Tuesday, renewed "unjust claims over Dokdo, which is clearly an integral part of South Korea's territory historically, geographically and by international law," South Korean media reported.

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In a statement, the ministry urged Japan to immediately retract such claims, vowing to continue a firm response to any Japanese provocations against Dokdo.

Dokdo is a couple of rocky outcroppings lying halfway between the two countries, which were forcibly incorporated into Imperial Japan during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

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South Korea restored sovereignty over the islets after the peninsula's liberation from colonization. Seoul has since maintained a small police detachment there.

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South Koreans have seen Japan's territorial claims over the islets as its denial of colonial history.