00:00Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the disputed Kuril Islands for the first time,
00:05prompting a strong protest from Japan, which also claims the territory.
00:10The dispute has been a long-running source of tension between the two countries,
00:14so much so that they have never signed a formal peace treaty since World War II,
00:19partly because of their dispute over the islands.
00:23Putin visited Iturub, one of four southern Kuril Islands claimed by both Russia and Japan.
00:30Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands are inherently Japanese territory
00:36under history and international law.
00:39The islands lie between Japan's Hokkaido and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
00:43Japan calls them the northern territories,
00:46while Russia has administered them since the Soviet Union took control in 1945.
00:51Around 17,000 Japanese residents were forced to leave after the Soviet takeover.
00:57Efforts to resolve the dispute have made little progress,
01:01with ties deteriorating further since Japan imposed sanctions on Russia
01:05over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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