Dokto Controversy Spreads to Prague
Occidentalism is reporting that Korean tourists spray painted Dokto graffiti on a cultural landmark the John Lennon Wall in Prague. Apparently some Czech citizens are upset about the graffiti and spray painted over the Korean flag the Czech word for cowards.
I think it is kind of childish to spray paint graffiti like this in a prominent location in a foreign country because the Dokto issue is a regional political issue between Korea and Japan that has nothing to do with the Czech Republic. It would similarly be childish of me if I went to Cheongyecheon Stream in Seoul and painted one of the walls there with graffiti against illegal Mexican immigration into America. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with Korea because it is a regional political issue between the US and Mexico. It is the same thing with the Dokto controversy. It is one thing to fill a subway station in Korea with anti-Japanese pictures drawn by school children; but quite another to do something similar to this in a foreign country.
I tend to agree with Curzon’s comment on the whole Dokto controversy:
Korea occupied the rocks; Japan disputes their ownership. Russia occupies southern Sakhalin and the Kurils; Japan disputes their ownership. Somehow, the stoic and steely nature of the Russian personality to resist worldwide lobbying, cutting off pinkies, and making themselves look absurd in the eyes of the world. How ever do they contain themselves?
I feel that Korea does have the strongest case for ownership of Dokto; plus they physically occupy the islets. Short of war nothing is going to move Korea off those two rocks and Japan is not going to start a war over Dokto and both governments know this. Yet Dokto remains a great source for Korean governmental leaders in political trouble at home, to stoke Korean nationalism in order to skew their own short comings. The same phenomenon but on a much smaller scale is why the Japanese government doesn’t let the Takeshima issue fade either because politicians in power want to appease the Japanese fishing industry. In the end it is a wash and both governments look as stupid as this graffiti in Prague.
