Rival parties denounce Japan over Dokdo survey

South Korea's rival political parties lashed out at the Japanese government Friday for releasing a public opinion poll backing Tokyo's claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.
   
On Thursday, Japan's Cabinet Office published a survey showing that 60.7 percent of all Japanese regard Dokdo as their territory historically and under international law.
   
It was the first survey of its kind by the Japanese government.
    
"We cannot help but be angry at the Japanese government for trying to justify its ridiculous selfishness for Dokdo through a public opinion poll that lacks legitimacy," Rep. Min Hyun-joo, a spokeswoman of the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a statement.
   
"The Japanese government should realize that only a correct history and perception of territory will guarantee future-oriented ties between South Korea and Japan, and it should immediately stop laying territorial claims to Dokdo."
   
The main opposition Democratic Party emphasized that a public opinion survey cannot change the truth about which country Dokdo belongs to.
   
"(The survey) paradoxically shows the serious consequences of the Japanese government's provocations thus far," Park Yong-jin, a spokesman of the opposition party, said in a press briefing at the National Assembly. "The (survey) results raise concerns that South Korea-Japan relations will worsen in the future."
   
Japan has long laid claims to Dokdo in various ways including through the country's school textbooks and government reports, stoking enmity in South Korea against its former colonial ruler.
  
South Korea views the claims as a sign that Japan has not fully repented for its imperialist past.
   
South Korea also says the territorial claims amount to Japan denying Korea's independence from its 1910-45 colonial rule, because South Korea reclaimed sovereignty over its territory -- including Dokdo and many other islands in waters near the Korean Peninsula -- when it regained independence.
   
South Korea has been keeping a small police detachment on Dokdo since 1954. (Yonhap News)