Japan has sent its ambassador back to South Korea after he was recalled in a diplomatic dispute over a small group of islands in the Sea of Japan.
Masatoshi Muto will be sent back to Seoul at an undisclosed time, the BBC reports. He was summoned back home following a surprise visit to the islands—known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda asked South Korea to take the dispute to the International Court of Justice, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. On Tuesday, Tokyo sent a letter to the South Korean government over the matter, but Seoul refused.
“It is not worthy of our attention,” said Cho Tai Young, a spokesperson with the ministry of foreign affairs, according to the newspaper. “We will relay to Japan our longstanding position in explicit terms in writing.”
Foreign Minister Kim Sung Hwan likewise said that South Korea’s “position is that there should exist no territorial disputes over Dokdo because Dokdo is our territory,” reported the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
The rocky, uninhabited islands are located near what are said to be rich fishing grounds and might contain large deposits of natural gas.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics, a South Korean men’s soccer player who helped his team win the bronze medal was barred from taking part in the award ceremony after he held up a sign that read, “Dokdo is our land,” referring to the diplomatic row.
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