South Korean emergency workers patrol in front of a seawall with a "No Entry" sign at a port in Gangneung on January 1, 2024, as South Korea issued tsunami advisory after a major earthquake in Japan. Photo by Yonhap / YONHAP / AFP
Seoul: South Korea on Tuesday said it has lodged a "stern" protest against Tokyo's inclusion of disputed islands in a tsunami advisory issued after a major earthquake struck a day earlier.
Seoul has controlled the Dokdo islets -- known as Takeshima in Japan -- located off its east coast since 1945, when Tokyo's colonial rule of the Korean peninsula ended.
Tokyo says the islands are illegally occupied by South Korea.
On Monday, at least 48 people were killed after a massive 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's western Ishikawa prefecture, causing widespread destruction and resulting in tsunami warnings being issued for many areas.
On the website of the Japan Meteorological Agency, a map displaying tsunami alerts featured the rocky islets highlighted in yellow -- indicating a tsunami was expected to hit -- alongside other Japanese territories on the west coast of the country.
"Our government has sternly protested to Japan through diplomatic channels and requested corrective action" over the tsunami advisory, South Korean foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk told reporters.
"Dokdo is our inherent territory with clear historical, geographical, and international legal grounds, and there is no dispute over the sovereignty of Dokdo," he said.
Lim added, however, that the ministry "deeply sympathises" with the substantial loss of lives and property in Japan resulting from the earthquake.
Relations between the two US allies have long been testy due to bitter memories of Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed his condolences for the earthquake's victims earlier on Tuesday.
Seoul's presidential office said that in a letter sent to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, President Yoon conveyed "words of comfort ... and expressed solidarity in overcoming the earthquake damage".
