Category: Dokdo Madness

Representative Royce is pretty much just stating reality and hopefully one day the Japanese will accept this reality:

The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said “Dokdo” is the right name to refer to South Korea’s easternmost islets, rejecting Japan’s long-running claims that the East Sea islets are its own.

“It’s another one of those issues where we have to understand history and what abuses occurred because it is relevant to our understanding today,” Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency earlier this week. “The proper name is Dokdo island.”

Japan’s claims to Dokdo have long been a key thorn in relations between Seoul and Tokyo, along with other issues stemming from Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonial rule, such as Japan’s enslavement of Korean women as sex slaves for its troops.

South Korea has rejected Japan’s claims over Dokdo as nonsense because the country regained independence from colonial rule and reclaimed sovereignty over its territory, including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul has been keeping a small police detachment on Dokdo since 1954.

It is considered unusual for the U.S. House Foreign Affairs committee chief to openly reject Japan’s claims to the islets. The U.S. government has not taken any side on the issue, leaving the matter to Seoul and Tokyo to sort out.

Royce, who has been reelected the committee’s chairman for the incoming Congress, is considered one of the “pro-Korean” U.S. lawmakers. He has led a series of legislation and resolutions on issues related to South and North Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but Representative Royce has also been pushing the Japanese to accept the human rights abuses that happened in regards to the comfort women as well.

Here is another example of a Dokdo idiot:

A 55-year-old man reportedly consumed poison Friday in an apparent suicide attempt with a note urging the need to “stand up against” Japan’s claim to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, police said.

The man, only identified by his surname Choi, was rushed to a nearby hospital after he was found lying unconscious in front of the National Cemetery in southern Seoul around noon after reportedly consuming a bottle of weed killer to take his own life, according to police officials.

A suicide note was found in a notebook inside Choi’s car that was parked in front of the cemetery, which reads, “The Japanese government, which had once colonized this country, is now trying to take away the Dokdo islets from us as well. We must not succumb to their claims but must stand up against them.”

Choi had written several letters in the notebook containing similar contents that were addressed to the president of Korea and members of the National Assembly, and he was also found to have been carrying a flag with the slogan “Dokdo belongs to us (South Korea),” police said.

Family members said Choi was an ordinary citizen who has never joined any activist groups or taken part in such protests, but added that he began telling friends that he was “so angered by Japan” through text messages since last month.  [Korea Times]

Do you want to be an online defender of Dokdo?  Well now online groups have now made it possible for you to be a virtual defender of Dokdo by taking virtual tours and planting digital flowers on the island. 

Robert from the Marmot’s Hole brings us the latest in the most pressing issue of our time, the Great Dokdo War:

Since May 21, Wikipedia has been running a poll on whether or not to continue referring to the islets as Dokdo, or whether to change it to the Liancourt Rocks. Currently, if you enter “Takeshima” or “Liancourt Rocks” into Wikipedia, it automatically connects to the “Dokdo” page.

As of Thursday, some 19 people agreed with “Dokdo,” while 22 supported a switch to “Liancourt Rocks.”

One one each, meanwhile, supported a switch to “Takeshima” or “Takeshima/Dokdo,” while four supported a switch to “Dokdo/Takeshima.”

The poll has been running for five days, and it’s unsure when it will end.

But if the poll were to end now, Wikipedia’s official name of “Dokdo” would switch to “Liancourt Rocks.” According to the Chosun, many Japanese—seeing how the name “Takeshima” is hardly being used internationally—are instead calling for the islets to be officially referred to as the “Liancourt Rocks” with the aim of weakening Korea’s soveriegnty over the rocks.

There has been something of a protracted struggle over Wikipedia’s official name for the Dokdo islets. The online encyclopedia originally referred to the rocks as Dokdo, but in May 2005, a netizen poll forced a switch to the Liancourt Rocks. In June 2006, another poll unanimously switched it back to Dokdo.

You would think by now, the general Korean public would be getting hit with war weariness from this protracted conflict.  Now they have a new Wikipedia front of this war to fight as well.  This front is being opened just weeks after the Korean public fought another protracted battle during the Rain Crisis. 

 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.  Since then those of us in Korea have been through multiple cease fires, close calls, and even lived through the failure of the Daemado campaign.  Times had been so desperate that even talk about recruiting North Korea to fight off the evil Japs was announced.  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 Dokdo.  I have no doubt more brave Korean patriots will respond to this new Wikipedia Front.    

Where would Korea be today without such patriots like flag eater man, Chung Dong-young, finger lady, the Dokdo Riders, and most importantly that great general of all things Dokdo, bee-man. 

Korea is looking to add their first natural heritage site recognized by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization:

On Jeju Island, there are many nominees up for world heritage recognition, like the nature reservations, caves, and tuff cones in Mt. Halla. Because of the fantastic geographical features created by breathtaking scenery and volcanic activity, the preservation value of its environment is high. Last October, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and National Resources (IUCN), the consultative body of the World Heritage Committee, visited Jeju and finished its research. Shim Mi-hwa of the Korean UNESCO committee says, We cannot say for 100 percent certain that it will be chosen, but last year the committee rated the place very highly and theres a good possibility.

I think it would be great if one of the natural features on Cheju Island receives World Heritage recognition, but in my opinion I find Soraksan National Park as being a better candidate for World Heritage recognition. I find Sorak Mountain more scenic than lets say Halla Mountain on Cheju plus their much more cultural sites surrounding Sorak Mountain than Halla Mountain. The Korean authorities have had Sorak Mountain on the tentative UNESCO list since 1994 and added Cheju Island sites in 2002. So it appears the Korean government has given up on listing Sorak Mountain because it has been pending for so long and focusing on getting Cheju listed instead.

Since Koreans like to compare themselves to Japan let me pose this comparison. In my opinion the Sorak Mountain wilderness is just as spectacular the Shirakami-sanchi Mountains in Japan that are listed as being a World Heritage area. Both areas are of nearly equal size (Sorak -163km2, Shirakami-170km2), both have important cultural history, and both protect an environment unique to their countries. So how come Sorak Mountain hasn’t been listed after all these years? In my opinion is probably because natural beauty is not the first thing that comes to mind when people working at the UN who make these decisions think of Korea when compared to Japan. That is why I hope Korea at least gets one natural feature cited to begin to shift this stereotype because the Korean mountains really are beautiful and under appreciated.

Now the really bold move that I would love to see the Korean government try, is to list Ulleongdo and Dokdo islands as World Heritage protected areas. Ulleongdo island is one of the most beautiful areas in Korea and Dokdo islets are not really beautiful, but are unusual. Additionally, a World Heritage nomination for Ulleongdo and Dokdo would be a way to resolve the whole Dokdo nonsense between Korean and Japan. A claim I have often heard from Koreans is that the UN is biased against Korea because Japan gives so much money to the UN. That claim is very weak when the UN is one of the most notable anti-American organizations out there and the US gives more money than any other country to the UN. Plus the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean which totally debunks the biased UN claim. So now is the time to try to list Dokdo.

This wouldn’t be the first time an area has been given UNESCO recognition that was controversial. Look no further than the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo enshrined by China in 2004. The claiming of the Koguryo kingdom by China has been hotly contested by Korean scholars and UNESCO enshrined it anyway in the name of China. What better way than UNESCO recognition to settle the Dokdo dispute? No more talk about old, inaccurate maps, no more ex-pats losing their jobs over disputing Dokdo ownership, no more people chopping off their fingers, no more bee man, no more disrespecting Japanese flags by Korean politicians, just generally no more wackiness over Dokdo. However, I don’t see it happening because Korean politicians don’t want to settle the Dokdo issue just like they don’t want to settle the Yongsan Garrison issue either, because it provides them an issue that is easy to manipulate to promote nationalism within the general Korean population to their own political advantage.

Will the lunacy over Dokdo ever end in Korea? From the Korea Times:

Toyota has recalled about 4,000 cars this year, including 1,863 Lexus RX330s in August for faulty driver’s seats. Toyota is replacing BMW as the top-selling imported brand, having sold 5,183 vehicles in the January-October period. BMW, which had occupied the No. 1 for six consecutive years since 1999, fell to second with the sale of 4,931 in the same period.

Toyota also recalled IS250 and GS430, two popular Lexus models, for seat belt and airbag defects.

Additionally, auto experts said there is a possibility of getting an electric shock if the Lexus RX400h, the first hybrid car on the Korean market, is involved in a car accident.

But a Toyota official argued that no case has been reported in the U.S., citing a sensor system in the SUV.

According to the afternoon newspaper Munhwa, the Japanese carmaker is raising the ire of netizens for dropping the Dokdo Islets, the islets to the east of Korea that Japan also lays its claim to, from its navigation system. The allegation comes on top of complaints that it is selling its cars at inflated prices.

Who the hell cares if Dokdo is on an in car navigation system or not? Does Korea have plans to make a superhighway over 200 kilometers of ocean to get to Dokdo? My Garmin GPS doesn’t have Dokdo on it either, does that mean that Garmin is some how involved in this great Japanese conspiracy to take over Dokdo?

HT: Japundit

Julian Ryall, a reporter for the British daily The Scotsman recently visited the disputed Dokdo islets and wrote an article about it. Basically the same old Dokdo garbage, but I thought this passage was pretty telling:

So if Korea is so firm on its position over Dokdo, why won’t it boldly take the case to International Court of Justice? The article quotes Lee again: “The government does not think the court could take the historical (colonial) relationship seriously and it does not know whether the evidence that would be presented to the court would be effective.

“Korea is concerned about an unpredictable outcome and that we could lose this case. If Seoul agreed to go to an international court, it would lose the advantage that it enjoys at the moment by being in control of the islands.”

I guess forged maps don’t go over very well in a court of law.

If you really care:

South Korea and Japan held talks on Monday to take the steam out of a simmering dispute over desolate islands claimed by both countries.

Tensions have flared in the past year and a half over the islands, called Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, which lie about the same distance from the two Asian neighbours.

Plans by Japan to conduct a maritime survey near the islands in April led South Korea to dispatch about 20 coastguard vessels to head off the survey ship.

The two-day talks in Seoul will address claims for economic exclusion zones around the islands, sitting among rich fishing grounds and above what South Korea says could be billions of dollars’ worth of gas hydrate deposits, officials said.

In a way this really isn’t surprising; here is another scandal that makes Korea look stupid in the eyes of the Japanese and anyone else in the world that follows this stupid Dokdo issue. The Dokdo Museum on Ulleongdo Island has apparently forged an old Korean map in order to make their point that Dokdo historically belongs to Korea. On the original map in question, the island of Usando, which Korea claims as being the ancient name of the Dokdo islets is shown located to the west of Ulleongdo and closer to the Korean mainland. The actual islets of Dokdo are located far to the southeast of Ulleongdo thus making the claim of Usando actually being Dokdo impossible. Usando is actuality is probably the originally name of Jukdo Island which lies just off the coast from Ulleongdo. However, the Dokdo Museum in their infinite wisdom doctored the originally map and moved Usando to the east of Ulleongdo Island to bolster their claim that Usando is in fact Dokdo.When are the ultra-nationalists in Korea going to learn to stop their antics over Dokdo? The chopping off of fingers, eating Japanese flags, the Dokdo Riders, political pilgrimages to Dokdo, grandstanding, stabbing yourself in the gut, graffitting foreign cities, and now forging old maps does nothing to help Korea’s cause to lay claim undisputed claim to the Dokdo Islets. These antics only make Korea look like some undeveloped third world country with unstable citizens. This stereotype gives the Japanese the moral high ground on this issue since they approach it in calm, deliberate manner.

The best thing Koreans could do is to just shut the hell up about the whole Dokdo issue. Korea physically owns the islands, with a ROK Coast Guard contingent stationed there, so what is Japan going to do about that? Dokdo is like the Israel of the East Sea. No matter how much the Japanese complain, the Koreans are not ever going to leave that rock and the Japanese know it. They are not going to go to war over the islets, so they are pulling a page out of the Islamic militant playbook of creating a very negative image of Koreans over this issue through the media which if a time comes where a diplomatic solution is being brokered for the islets the Japanese have a stronger hand due to their stereotyping of their opponent. What is even better for Japan is that they don’t even have to try very hard to do it. The ultra-nationalists and the incompetent Korean government are more them willing to make themselves look stupid and ridiculous to the rest of the world in order to score some cheap political points back home domestically. All of this domestic demagoguery by the Korean nationalists and politicians only plays into Japanese hands and hurts any case the Koreans could possibly make to an international arbitrator over this issue if that time ever came.

If you want to learn more about the historical claims on each side of this issue make sure you check out these postings by the Flying Yangban and Gerry Bevers. Also check out the GI Korea Photo Archive which has recently uploaded photos from my trip to Ulleongdo as well as my Dokdo album. They are each very informative, but at the end of the day looking at all the evidence I don’t think either side has a very strong historical claim to the islets. However, the Koreans were the last ones to occupy the islets and still maintain a presence there today. That is good enough reason for me to say let them have it, but could the ultra-nationalists and politicians in Korea at least shut up about it? Some how I just don’t ever see that happening.