Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he will definitely visit the South Kuril Islands, which have been at the center of a dispute with Japan since World War II.

The Kuril Islands have been disputed between Russia and Japan for almost eight decadesPhoto: Peter Hermes Furian / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

Soviet forces captured four islands off Japan’s Hokkaido at the end of World War II, and they remained under Moscow’s control, preventing the two countries from signing a peace treaty.

The islands are known to Japan as the Northern Territories.

During a meeting in the Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk on Thursday, Putin was asked about Kunashir Island, which is one of the South Kuril Islands.

Putin said that tourism should be developed on the islands. “They say it’s very interesting there,” the Russian president said, the Kremlin reports.

“I have never been there, unfortunately – I will definitely go,” he added.

Located in the northwest Pacific Ocean, the Kuril Islands stretch 1,250 km from the southern tip of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula south to the Japanese island of Hokkaido, forming a precise boundary between the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the south. East.