Category: Dokdo Madness

This would have been the stupidest reason ever to boycott the Olympics:

South Korea is not considering boycotting the Tokyo Olympics, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, after presidential hopefuls of the ruling Democratic Party mentioned the possibility of a boycott amid a renewed territorial spat with Japan over the East Sea islets of Dokdo.

Rep. Lee Nak-yon and former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun raised the need to mull boycotting the Games, slated to take place from July 23-Aug. 8, should Japan not revise the map of the Olympic torch relay route that included Dokdo as its territory.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is the summer protest season which means the Dokdo crazies are showing up again:

South Korean university students burned a Japanese flag in Seoul for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in protest of the Tokyo government’s claim to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Members of the Korean Progressive University Student Union set the Rising Sun Flag, formerly used by the Japanese imperial army, on fire in front of Dongnimmun (independence) Gate in central Seoul in the afternoon after condemning the Japanese government and Tokyo Olympics organizers for claiming Dokdo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Could it be that in 1904 neither Korea or Japan cared about Dokdo because there was no exclusive economic zones back then thus making it a worthless pile of rocks unlike now?:

 A Japanese elementary school textbook published about a century ago did not define the easternmost Korean islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory, a Seoul-based public foundation said Wednesday.

The state-funded Northeast Asian History Foundation disclosed the old Japanese geography textbook printed in 1904 at a seminar of history experts in Seoul, slamming Tokyo for its latest approval of school textbooks renewing territorial claims to Dokdo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest shot fired in the never-ending Dokdo debate:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday refuted Japan’s renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo and warned of stern a response to the unsubstantiated claims.

“Dokdo is our inherent territory, historically, geographically and by international law,” the ministry said in a statement. “We want to make it clear that whatever attempt Japan makes cannot have an influence over our firm territorial sovereignty.”

Earlier in the day, the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) unveiled on its website aerial charts from the 1950s made by the United States Air Force in what it claimed to be evidence that South Korea was illegally occupying the islets.

The JIIA is a security think tank affiliated with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also collects and studies materials related to their history, territory and sovereignty.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I think the Korean left actually enjoys the fact that Shimane prefecture has had an annual Takeshima Day since 2005 just so they have an excuse to vent their anti-Japanese sentiment:

South Korea lodged a strong protest Saturday against Japan’s renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Seoul’s foreign ministry called in Hirohisa Soma, a senior official at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and expressed regret over Japan’s annual event meant to publicize its territorial claim to Dokdo.

“We again sternly urged Japan to immediately repeal” its event on Dokdo, the ministry said in a statement.

The protest came hours after the Japanese prefecture of Shimane held the Takeshima Day event and a senior Japanese government official attended the ceremony. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Koreans should just ignore this stupidity from a backwater Japanese prefecture, but it is too much red meat for the Korean left wing base to ignore especially before April’s parliamentary elections.

I do have to give the Korean left credit because they have at least toned down their annual response to Takeshima Day. I can remember the good old days of the Great Dokdo War.  I can still remember the hard days when those of us in Korea had to stock up on food and supplies to survive the initial declaration of war from President Roh Moo-hyun.  We made it through multiple cease fires, close calls, and even the failure of the Daemado campaign.  

Times had been so desperate there was even talk about recruiting North Korea to fight off the evil Japanese Imperialists.  Though the casualties on the Korean side have been heavy at times, through it all the brave defenders of Dokdo have continued thwart the massive Japanese armada descending on the islet.  

We were also treated back then to such Korean patriots like Flag Eater Man, Chung Dong-young, the Finger Chopping Lady, the Knife in the Gut Man, Weed Killer Man, the Dokdo Riders, and most importantly that great general of all things Dokdo, Bee-Man.  Sorry Korean Democratic Party, you have nothing on these great defenders of Dokdo.

This is an unfortunate accident:

 Rescue workers found three bodies believed to be among the seven missing people aboard a crashed chopper near the Dokdo islets in the East Sea on Saturday.

A helicopter belonging to the fire agency crashed Thursday night, a few minutes after it took off from Dokdo, with seven people on board, including an injured person from a fishing boat.

Rescue workers found three bodies and retrieved one of them as part of an underwater mission by a submarine rescue ship of South Korea’s Navy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I am surprised someone hadn’t thought of doing this sooner:

The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH) introduced LiDAR, a new technology which made a debut scrutinizing the Dokdo islets last week, in commemoration of Dokdo Day, which falls on Oct. 25. The day marks King Gojong’s official proclamation of Dokdo as territory attached to Ulleung Island in 1900.

LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a technology using lasers to illuminate and measure the reflected light to estimate the distance to a target. This uses s distant red light to 3D scan the terrain. 

The drone has become a popular means of cultural heritage management and preservation as it can reach places that people cannot to acquire photo and video data. A drone equipped with LiDAR can provide more meticulous information on the topography and ecology.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The Bank of Korea is considering issuing Dokdo coins:

The chief of the nation’s central bank has pledged to consider issuing “Dokdo commemorative coins,” amid increasing public demand for the issuance of such coins in a pre-emptive move to increase awareness among the international community that the eastern islets are Korean territory.

Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol made the promise during a National Assembly audit of the bank, Tuesday, in response to Rep. Park Myung-jae of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, who asked whether the issuance of Dokdo commemorative coins is still difficult for the central bank.

In a report given to Rep. Kim Du-kwan of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) ahead of the audit, the BOK also said: “If the government asks us to issue Dokdo commemorative coins, we will consider the issuance, after taking its appropriateness and ripple effects into account.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I would love to know what the context is in regards to these maps that were found on these government websites. This sounds like more stirring of the pot to get anti-Japanese issues back in the headlines: