Bullet sent to Russian embassy in Japan island row

A rifle bullet has been mailed to the Russian embassy in Japan, police said Tuesday, amid a worsening territorial row over a string of disputed islands. The disagreement over the Southern Kurils, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, has prevented the signing of a peace treaty between Tokyo and Moscow ever since the end of World War II.
Tensions flared Monday when Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan called President Dmitry Medvedev's visit last year to the islands an "unforgivable outrage" and the Kremlin again vowed it would never give up the Kurils. On the same day, marked in Japan as the annual Northern Territories Day, a seven-centimetre (2.8 inch) rifle bullet was found in an envelope mailed to the Russian embassy in Tokyo, media reports said. It was reportedly accompanied by a note that said: "The Northern Territories are an integral part of Japan." The bullet was a dummy cartridge without gunpowder, Jiji Press said.