Japan set "Takeshima Day" (February 22) and has held a "commemorative event" every year to claim ownership to Tok Island as an "inalienable part" of its territory.

The Japanese reactionaries' "claim" to Tok Island, which is an inviolable part of Korea's territory, is a grave challenge to the historical justice and truth, an encroachment upon the Korean nation's territorial sovereignty and an undisguised agitation for aggression.

Such far-fetched assertion is a reckless act that could be done only by the Japanese reactionaries steeped in the ambition for territorial seizure to the marrow of their bones.

Japan's criminal scheme to seize Tok Island is getting more cunning and vicious, evidenced by such moves as the education in distorted history among the rising generations, the annual publication of diplomatic blue paper and defense white paper openly carrying the claim to Tok Island, and the infusion of aggression consciousness through "exhibition for territorial sovereignty".

This year, too, the Japanese foreign minister, in his speech at the Diet clarifying the main orientation of the diplomatic policy, said it is Japan's "basic stand" to call for "dominium" over Tok Island.

Clear is the aim of the moves to grab Tok Island that have been conducted in an organized, planned and phased way under the baton of the Japanese government.

The aim sought by the Japanese government is to gratify its disgusting ambition for territorial expansion by persistently implanting in the minds of its people revanchism and aggression fever that Tok Island is a "usurped land" like the doctrine of fascism that "repeated lie might be turned to be truth" and by confusing the international public opinion under the mask of "territorial disputes".

As recognized by the world, Tok Island always belongs to Korea in historical and geographical view and in view of international law.

Korea's historical documents and maps, including "Koryo History" and "the geographical book attached to the True Records of King Sejong", prove that Tok Island is an inseparable territory of Korea and this fully conforms to the principle of prior occupation, the requirement of international law for the territorial entry.

The absurdity and illegality of "Notice of Shimane Prefecture" No. 40, raised by Japan as a "scientific ground" for its "claim" to Tok Island, have already been laid bare.

The legal position of Tok Island is definitely verified by Japan's "navigation summary", which recorded the government of Edo's decision officially recognizing Korea's dominium over Ullung Island and Tok Island in January 1696, the "map of East Coast of Korea" compiled by the Navy Department of Japan in 1876, the complete map of the Empire of Japan published in 1888 and 1892, and other historical data of Japan, as well as historical data of different countries and the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration published after the Second World War.

Tok Island is an inviolable land handed down by the Korean nation generation after generation along with its 5,000-year-long history.

This is the justice and truth of history that can neither be denied nor distorted.

The regular burlesque to swallow up the land of Korea will only precipitate Japan's destruction.

It is the stark truth taught by the archipelago's history of defeats that the reckless ambition will end in a disgraceful defeat.

The will of all Koreans to settle accounts with Japan will surely put an end to the sworn enemy's territorial greed and reinvasion ambition.