Diplomat summoned over disputed islands

THE foreign ministry summoned a Japanese diplomat to protest against a claim in Japan’s annual diplomatic policy Bluebook on a group of islands at the centre of a longstanding territorial dispute, a ministry spokesman said.T

ies between the two countries have improved in recent years, but the neighbours are at odds over the sovereignty of the islands – called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan – that lie about halfway between them.