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Which of the following countries are claiming territorial rights over the Kuril Islands?1. China and Vietnam2. Japan and China3. Japan and Russia4. Myanmar and Thailand

Answer» Correct Answer - Option 3 : Japan and Russia

The correct answer is Japan and Russia.

  • The island chain known as the Kurils stretches north across the Pacific Ocean from the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia's the Kamchatka Peninsula.
  • It consists of 56 islands and minor rocks.
  • The chain is part of the belt of geologic instability circling the Pacific and contains at least 100 volcanoes, of which 35 are still active, and many hot springs.
  • Earthquakes and tidal waves are common phenomena over these islands.
  • Four islands - which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan call the Northern Territories - are the subject of a 60-year-old dispute between the two nations.
    • They are Kunashir (known in Japanese as Kunashiri), Iturup (Etorofu), Shikotan and the rocky Habomai islets.
    • The southernmost islet in the Habomai group lies only a few kilometres off Nemuro on the Japanese island of Hokkaido
    • Because of the dispute, Russia and Japan have not yet signed a peace treaty to end World War II.

  • In 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which gave Japan ownership of the four southern islands and Russia ownership of everything to the north.
  • Communities developed on three of the islands and by the time World War II began, there were 17,000 Japanese residents.
  • Russia took control of the islands at the end of the war, and by 1949 it had deported all residents to Japan.
  • Under the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed between the Allies and Japan, Japan renounced "all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands", as well as over other possessions. But this resolved nothing because Russia did not sign the treaty and the Japanese government has never recognised the four islands as part of the Kuril chain.
  • In 1956, the Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration restored diplomatic ties between the two nations, but a formal peace deal remained out of reach because of the territorial dispute.
  • At the time, Russia proposed returning the two islands closest to Japan, a deal Japan rejected, in part because the two islands represent only 7% of the land in question.
  • Since then, the dispute has remained unresolved.


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