The general map of Japan contained in Vol. 2 of the new geographical description compiled by Masudaro Okamura in 1887 marked Ullung Island and Tok Islets as parts of the territory of Korea. Tok Islets were excluded from the map of the Japanese empire of the geography textbook for primary schools published by the then Ministry of Education of Japan in 1905.

The "Japanese history", the textbook screened by the Ministry of Education in 1886, did not mention Tok Islets at all though it claimed Okinawa Prefecture and other islands around it belong to the territory of Japan.

Minju Joson Tuesday observes in a bylined commentary in this regard:

This bespeaks that the Japanese did not recognize Tok Islets as part of the territory of Japan but as part of Korea's in the past.

Tok Islets have never belonged to Japan but they have been part of the inviolable territory of the Korean nation, the commentary notes, and goes on:

The Japanese reactionaries' claim to Tok Islets is an unpardonable infringement upon the sovereignty of the Korean nation and a robber-like claim.

Lurking behind their assertion is a sinister aim to turn the issue into a dispute between Korea and Japan and use it as a pretext for igniting a war for staging a comeback to the former.

This is the reason why the Japanese reactionaries stoop to the brigandish claim that those islets belong to Japan in defiance of stark historical facts in a bid to attain their political purpose.

It is a daydream for them to calculate that they can grab those islets as desired.

The Japanese reactionaries would be well advised to pay heed to historical testimony, the commentary says, warning if they throw even a single stone at Tok Islets, the Korean nation will never pardon them.