South Korea Monday said it would recall its ambassador to Japan in protest against Tokyo's rekindled claims to disputed islets between the two countries.
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The move comes after Japan announced on the same day a government teaching manual would recommend that students learn about Tokyo's claims to the nearly uninhabitable islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
The dispute over the islets under South Korea's control has been a long-standing thorn in the neighbors' relations.
"Many people are of the opinion that we should teach the facts about Takeshima and deepen understanding of Japan's land and territory," Nobutaka Machimura, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said, adding that Seoul had been informed of the plan.
"We would like to avoid a situation where Japan-South Korean relations are gravely hurt by each and every issue that comes up," he said. "We both should handle such a matter calmly."
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak expressed "his deep disappointment and regret" over the renewed claim, his spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
"We cannot accept it, (we) strongly protest against the Japanese government and request immediate corrective measures," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.
Lawmakers from the ruling Grand National Party chant slogans in front of memorial monuments of people who died defending a group of desolate volcanic islets known by Seoul and Pyongyang as Dokdo and by Tokyo as Takeshima, on the islets July 14, 2008.
