North Korea slammed Japan on Tuesday for asserting its claims on South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo, calling it an "unabashed" claim.

North Korea's main propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, rebuked Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida for repeating his government's territorial claims over the Dokdo islets in a speech on foreign policy to the Diet on Friday.

"It is needless to say that Dokdo is Korea's territory historically, geographically and legally. Against this backdrop, Japan's territorial claim over Dokdo is nonsense without any proof," it said.

Japan has long declared sovereignty over the Dokdo islets, which lie closer to South Korea than Japan in the waters between the two countries, in one of the thorniest diplomatic issues between the neighbors. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.

Seoul has flatly rejected Tokyo's claim, saying that Dokdo is South Korean territory by history, geography and international law.

"There would be no more unabashed claim than Japan's assertion of its territorial rights to the Dokdo islets," the North's website showed. (Yonhap)