- Dmitry Medvedev visits Kunashir Island, which is near Japan's island of Hokkaido
- Japan calls the visit "wrong"
- The islands have been a source of dispute since World War II
Moscow (CNN) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited islands claimed by both Russia and Japan Tuesday, provoking an angry reaction from Tokyo.
He held a meeting with the governor of Sakhalin on Kunashir Island, which is near Japan's large northern island of Hokkaido.
Kunashir is one of the Kuril Islands, which Russia considers part of its Sakhalin region.
But Japan claims some of the islands as its territory.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Tuesday that Russia was taking the "wrong position" with the visit.
Medvedev held talks with Sakhalin's governor on improving air transportation between islands, according to the Russian Federation's government website.
Former President Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit the islands when he went there in November 2010.
The Kurils stretch between Russia in the north and Japan in the south. Following Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, the Soviet Union annexed the four southernmost islands, which previously belonged to Japan.
Ever since, the islands -- called the South Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan -- have been the subject of dispute. That dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty following World War II.
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