TOKYO-- Japan repeated its sovereignty claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo in an annual defense paper Friday, just a few days after Seoul's top diplomat made a trip there aimed at mending bilateral ties.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi reported this year's document to the Cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It marked the 18th consecutive year for Tokyo to claim its sovereignty over Dokdo in the paper on the nation's security conditions and its responses.

The updated version carried largely similar descriptions on the territorial issue, a longtime sticking point in Seoul-Tokyo relations, with those of last year's one.

But it added a position that cooperation between the neighboring countries is getting more important amid grave regional security situations.

Seoul has maintained its effective control of Dokdo with a small police detachment on the rocky islets in the East Sea.

Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Park Jin visited Tokyo for talks with his local counterpart, demonstrating President Yoon Suk-yeols' commitment to a resolution to disputes over shared history, especially Japan's brutal colonization of Korea from 1910-45.

There has been no news of any tangible breakthrough produced from Park's trip.

Source: Yonhap News Agency