It was confirmed on January 3 that Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said at a meeting of the National Defense Committee in March last year when he was a member of the ruling People's Power Party (PPP) that there was a territorial dispute between Korea and Japan. On the previous day, it was revealed that Shin uploaded a post on social media, saying, "It is true that there is a territorial dispute over Dokdo." He repeated the remark 10 months before he was criticized for describing Dokdo as a disputed territory in a military psychological warfare education textbook.

According to the minutes of the National Assembly's defense committee meeting on March 23 last year, Shin asked then Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup during a meeting, "It is true that Korea and Japan have past history and territorial disputes over Dokdo. However, are the militaristic Japan of August 15, 1945, and the liberal democratic Japan of today the same country?" Then Lee replied, "I think there have been many changes between 1945 and today."

It was the day Minister Shin wrote, "It is true that there is a dispute between Korea and Japan over past history and territorial sovereignty over Dokdo,” in a post titled "Feeling sorry for the National Assembly's defense committee and 5 questions to Lee Jae-myung.” The claim that there is a territorial dispute over Dokdo is contrary to the official position of the Korean government that Dokdo is Korea's own territory, so there is no territorial dispute itself. As Shin’s social media post went viral on January 2, the Ministry of National Defense responded by saying, "The minister was explaining that Japan is trying to make a territorial dispute."

Earlier, the Ministry of National Defense described Dokdo, Korea's own territory, as an area under territorial dispute, along with Senkaku Islands (which is known as Diaoyudao in China) and Kuril Islands (which is known as Jindima Islands in Japan) in an education textbook for soldiers published last month, sparking a controversy. As President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered Minister Shin to immediately correct the textbook, Shin retrieved all of them and made an official apology on December 28 last year, saying, "I am solely responsible for what happened.”

Shin issued a statement and denied that the remark on "Dokdo dispute" was not true. "The expression about 'Dokdo territorial dispute' that I posted on social media when I was a member of the National Assembly was written with a meaning that Japan is attempting a territorial dispute," adding, "I have never agreed to Japan's outrageous claims." However, as the remark was confirmed by Shin, criticism of the minister's perception of Dokdo's sovereignty is expected to grow.