SEOUL (Reuters) - Japan’s largest condom maker was forced to take down advertisements from South Korean subway cars as tensions rise between the two countries over islands claimed by both, officials said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, South Korea recalled its ambassador to Japan and lodged formal complaints in response to fresh territorial claims made by Japan over the islands called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.

“Having condom ads in a public space might not be acceptable for some people. Secondly, there is an anti-Japanese sentiment brewing among citizens over the Dokdo issue,” a spokesman with Seoul Metro said.

The subway operator informed the South Korean agent for Okamoto Industries of its decision and they reached an agreement to remove about 200 advertisement spots that boast Okamoto’s condoms are “number one in Japan”.

The fight over the rocky outcrops has been a persistent irritant in relations between the neighbors, rekindling memories in South Korea of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the peninsula.

The disputed islands are controlled by South Korea, which keeps a police presence there, and lie roughly equidistant from the mainlands of both countries.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported on Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.

“Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable,” Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo’s population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.