Korean emigre groups in Russia have denounced Japan's claim to the Tok Islets in the Sea of Japan and off the South Korean coast.

SEOUL, June 10 (UPI) -- Korean emigre groups in Russia have denounced Japan's claim to the Tok Islets in the Sea of Japan and off the South Korean coast.

Japan is becoming more desperate to seize the Tok Islets, a statement from the pro-North Korean United Confederation of Koreans in Russia along with the All-Russia Federation of Koreans and other Korean organizations said.

Their comments came in a meeting in Moscow along with "experts" of the Russian Institute of History, the Institute of the Far East and the Institute of Oriental Studies, a report by North Korea's state-run news agency Korean Central News Agency said.

Speakers asserted the Tok Islets, called Takeshima Islands by the Japanese, always have been "inalienable territory of Korea," the KCNA report said.

"There is no ground for Japan to insist that they belong to Japan," the statement said, noting that in a children's school textbook Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science has them as Japanese territory.

Tok Islets are around 116 miles from mainland South Korea and 114 miles from the main Japanese island of Honshu. Japan has incorporated the territory into the prefecture of Shimane on Honshu.

The territory -- also known as Liancourt Rocks -- consists of two main islands, Dongdo and Seodo and up to 35 surrounding rocky outcrops. Dongdo and Seodo together amount only to around 40 acres of land.

Japan's official claim to the islands is laid out in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It puts forward an historical ownership thesis as was well making reference to the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty.

In the treaty, Japan recognized the independence of Korea, renouncing any claims to territories, including the islands of Quelpart, Port Hamilton and Dagelet. Japan claims that by omission, the Tok Islets remain Japanese, the ministry document says.

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North Koreans voice claim over Tok Islands