Japan Protests Putin’s Kuril Islands Visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on Iturup on Thursday, one of the southernmost islands in the Kuril archipelago, near Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Tokyo claims the territory and strongly protested the Russian president’s visit.

According to Russian state news agency TASS, it was Putin’s first visit to the archipelago. On Iturup, he visited the Yasny fish processing plant. The previous day, he oversaw large-scale naval exercises in Russia’s Far East.

Japan maintains that the four disputed islands, which it calls the Northern Territories, are an inherent part of Japanese territory. Iturup is known in Japan as Etorofu.

The islands were occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II and remain under Russian control. The territorial dispute has prevented Russia and Japan from concluding a formal peace treaty formally ending their wartime hostilities.

Putin’s visit also comes amid heightened regional tensions. North Korea launched a ballistic missile from its eastern coast on 11 August, with the missile traveling more than 700 km before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Pyongyang has significantly deepened its military and political ties with Moscow in recent years.

(Reuters, bak)