In China, the media claim that the ancient Korean kingdom, Gorguryeo, belonged to China, provoking anger in Korea.

State-run Xinhua News Agency said earlier on Friday that the Goguryeo Kingdom was a province of China that had continuously been under control of Chinese dynasties in the past.

Also last week, the People's Daily made a similar claim, citing UNESCO's registration of the relics of the ancient kingdom allegedly as China's.

At the 28th session of its World Heritage Committee last week, the U.N. agency agreed to register the capital cities and tombs of the ancient Goguryeo Kingdom in its world heritage list.

The Goguryeo Kingdom was the ancient Korean kingdom which had ruled northern part of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria for about seven centuries before it fell in the late seventh century.

Analysts in Seoul believe that such reports by the Chinese media are apparently aimed at expanding the notion to the Chinese people that Goguryeo is part of Chinese history.