[ Yonhap News ] S. Korea to conduct Dokdo defense drill

South Korea was to stage an annual military exercise around its easternmost islets of Dokdo on Tuesday after Japan protested the planned drill and called off an agreed-upon summit between the two countries.

The drill, named the East Sea Territory Protection Exercise, will involve the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard, and be staged in a way that minimizes in-person contact given the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Navy.

Japan has repeatedly laid territorial claims to Dokdo, though South Korea has been in effective control of the islets with a small police detachment since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.