By PNA / Kyodo and U.S. News Agency / Asian

Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba has reviewed the disputed Kuril Islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, from aboard a patrol boat, as well as from Hokkaido Island, Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday.

The ongoing row over the Kuril Islands has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a formal peace treaty following the end of World War II.

Last August, Japan’s former foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, made a tour of Russia’s disputed Southern Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

In December 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sparked a diplomatic row with Tokyo by making the first ever visit by a Russian leader to the islands. He later said Russia would increase its military presence there.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Medvedev’s visit an “inexcusable rudeness.”

Maehara first visited the islands in 2006.