Seoul on Thursday formally rejected Tokyo's proposal to refer their territorial dispute over a pair of South Korean-controlled islets to the International Court of Justice for a ruling on sovereignty.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry handed over a diplomatic document to that effect to a senior Japanese Embassy official at the ministry.
Yonhap News Agency quoted the document as saying that "no territorial disputes exist" regarding the rocky outcrops known to South Koreans as Dokdo and asserting that they are South Korean territory historically, geographically and under international laws.