South Korea started a live-fire exercise near a group of disputed islets on Friday despite protests from Japan, a news report said.
The South Korean military was conducting the drill in waters south-west of the islets known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, Jiji Press reported, citing the Japan Coast Guard. The islets are controlled by Seoul but also claimed by Tokyo.
The area includes what Japan considers its territorial waters, the Japanese government said.
On Wednesday, Japan lodged a protest through the South Korean embassy in Tokyo, telling Seoul to cancel the exercise.
The latest move by South Korea came as Japan was set to release new information on how the 1993 Kono statement, a partial acknowledgment of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, was composed.
