South Korea has decided to give a state medal to a Japanese-born scholar who is one of the vocal critics of Japan’s claim to the South’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, an official said Tuesday.

Yuji Hosaka, a naturalized Korean and head of the Dokdo Research Institute of Sejong University in Seoul, has been credited with having helped South Korea increase awareness of its sovereign control of Dokdo worldwide, the Foreign Ministry official said.

“The government decided to award a state medal to Professor Hosaka after recognizing his role in helping increase opinions in favor of Dokdo in the face of Japan’s provocations against Dokdo,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The ministry will soon ask the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to give a state medal to Hosaka, the official said.

Diplomatic tensions persist over Japan’s reinforced actions to lay claim to Dokdo, which lies closer to South Korea in the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have frayed following an unprecedented visit to Dokdo last August by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who cited Tokyo’s unrepentant attitude over its brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as a key reason for his trip.

Dokdo has long been a thorn in relations between the two countries. South Korea keeps a small police detachment on the islets. (Yonhap News)