South Korea calls the islets Dokdo, while Japan calls them Takeshima.

Vowing to lodge a protest with the Japanese Embassy, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said Friday, "The government strongly protests the Japanese government's description of Dokdo as its own territory in the defense white paper issued on Sept. 5," Yonhap news agency reported.

He said the islets clearly belong to South Korea and that his government wants Japan to take "immediate measures to correct it."

The report said the Japan has laid claim to the islets in its annual white paper from 2005, although their ownership remains unsettled.

It said this year's depiction, however, is more sensitive since it comes less than two months after Japan's Education Ministry announced it would teach students that the islets make up disputed land.