Liancourt Rocks dispute Japan. In 1954, Japan proposed a reference to the International Court of Justice, which South Korea rejected, believing that the Liancourt Rocks are irrefutably South Korean territories, and thus should not be dealt through diplomatic negotiations or judicial settlement between South Korea and Japan. There are conflicting interpretations about the historical state of sovereignty over the islets. Korean claims are partly based on references to a Korean island called "Usan-do" in various historical records, maps and encyclopedias such as the "Samguk Sagi", "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty", "Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam" (), and "Dongguk munheon bigo" (). According to the Korean
Liancourt Rocks dispute North Korean propaganda essentially ignored the problem of the Liancourt Rocks. However, if Pyongyang felt threatened by Japanese-South Korean rapprochement (as in 1965–1968) or sought to cooperate with Seoul against Tokyo (as in 2000–2001), the North Korean media promptly raised the issue, with the aim of causing friction in Japanese-ROK relations. In August 2018, following the Japanese decision of describing the Liancourt Rocks as “pertaining to Japan” and “illegally occupied” by Korea on high school textbooks effective 2019, KCNA published a news piece condemning the Japanese claim to the islands, once again using historical arguments to back the Korean standpoint.