Tag: Dokdo

On a topic that everyone in Korea can agree on, the opposition party has go out and lie in an attempt to smear President Yoon by claiming he may give up Dokdo to Japan:

The ruling and the main opposition parties denounced Japan’s territorial claims over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Wednesday as they marked “Dokdo Day.”

“While the reestablishment of a future-oriented relationship between South Korea and Japan has opened discussions for cooperation in fields such as security and economy, the territorial dispute issue is an independent matter,” Rep. Park Jeong-ha, chief spokesperson of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), said.

Park said the government and the PPP will make legal and legislative efforts to protect the islets, and urged Japan to stop its “thoughtless words and wrongful claims” over Dokdo.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) also denounced Japan’s claims over Dokdo, but it also accused the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol of making too many concessions to Tokyo, including consenting to Tokyo’s release of radioactive water into the ocean.

“People are concerned that the government might even give up Dokdo. We urged President Yoon to become a president who safeguards the territory and national interests of South Korea,” Rep. Kwon Chil-seung, the DP’s chief spokesperson, said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is one issue I really wish the Japanese would work out with the Yoon administration. Ties between the two countries will never be fully normalized until this issue is resolved:

South Korea issued a strong protest on Friday against Japan’s renewed territorial claim to its easternmost islets of Dokdo in an annual defense white paper, calling for its immediate retraction.

Earlier in the day, Tokyo adopted the security document during a Cabinet session, renewing the claim to the pair of rocky outcroppings in the East Sea in the paper for the 19th consecutive year.

“The government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) strongly protests against the Japanese government’s repeated inclusion of unjust sovereignty claims over Dokdo, which is clearly an integral part of the ROK territory historically, geographically and under international law,” Lim Soo-suk, the spokesperson of the foreign ministry, said in a statement, using South Korea’s official name.

“The ROK government urges the Japanese government to immediately withdraw such claims,” he said, adding that the claims do not and will not have any impact on South Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo and that Seoul will respond “firmly” to any provocation over the islets.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Japanese are likely not showing much flexibility on this issue because of their ongoing territorial dispute with the Russians over the Kuril Islands which are islands they actually care about.

Here is some more Dokdo nonsense, anyone care?:

 South Korea lodged a strong protest against Japan on Tuesday over Tokyo’s renewed territorial claim to Dokdo, a set of rocky islets in the East Sea, in its latest annual diplomatic book.

The claim, strongly disputed by South Korea that has long maintained effective control of Dokdo with the permanent stationing of security personnel there, was included in the 2023 Diplomatic Bluebook that was reported to the Cabinet by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

The Bluebook stated that South Korea has continued an “illegal occupation” of the area with no legal basis.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You would think this professor would have better things to do than trolling Japanese websites looking for anything not labeling Dokdo correctly. What a sad life to lead:

The foreign ministry lodged a strong protest against Japan’s weather agency for labeling South Korea’s easternmost Dokdo islets as Japanese territory in maps depicting the path of Super Typhoon Hinnamnor. 

The ministry said on Monday in a statement that Dokdo islets are South Korean territory historically, geographically and by international law.

The ministry stressed that it will sternly respond to Japan’s unjust infringement upon South Korea’s territorial sovereignty, adding it asked the neighboring country to correct the mistake. 

Professor Seo Kyoung-duk at Sungshin Women’s University, first alerted the government and news outlets that Dokdo was labeled as Japanese territory on weather maps posted on the website of the Japan Meteorological Agency. 

KBS World News

You can read more at the link.

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.