South Korean parliament failed to raise this year's budget for promoting the country's ownership of the easternmost islets of Dokdo as originally planned, despite Japan's growing attempts to lay claim to the territory, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The National Assembly approved a 4.84 billion won (US$4.63 million) budget bill for the government's efforts in 2014 to globally promote the country's ownership of a cluster of rocky outcroppings lying in the East Sea and to counter Japan's false territorial claims to it.