South Korea strongly protested Friday after Japan restated its territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as the foreign and defense ministries called in senior officials at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to lodge a complaint.

The move came as the Japanese government adopted the 2024 defense white paper at a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, in which it reiterated the argument that Takeshima, the Japanese name for Dokdo, is part of its own territory and the issue over the territorial claims to the set of outcroppings "still remains unresolved."

Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between the two neighbors, as Tokyo continues to make the sovereignty claims in its policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.

South Korea maintains a small police detachment on the islets, effectively controlling them.

Kim Sang-hoon, director general for Asian and Pacific affairs, called in Taisuke Mibae, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to protest against Tokyo continuing to make false claims about Dokdo.

Earlier in the day, the defense ministry summoned a defense attache from the embassy to protest Japan's move and called for the immediate correction and future prevention of such actions.

"We strongly protest against Japan's unjust claims to Dokdo, which is clearly our inherent territory historically, geographically and by international law, and we urge Japan to retract the statement immediately," Lim Soo-suk, foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a commentary.

South Korea will take stern action against any action by Japan in relation to Dokdo and Tokyo's claims to the islets do little to change the fact that it belongs to South Korea, Lim said.

Lim added that Japan also should realize that its Dokdo claims do not help efforts to move bilateral relations forward in a future-oriented manner.

Last month, South Korea's foreign ministry dismissed Japan's protest over South Korea's routine maritime survey around the rocky islets. (Yonhap)