#ROK will go ahead with #Dokdo defense drills involving all branches of the armed forces. Can never be over-prepared. Space aliens may be scheming w #Japan for an invasion. But if Russian or Chinese warplane flies by, they'll be ordered just to wave hi.https://t.co/h1GgvuVlJ8
The dates of this exercise, August 13-14 are one day before ROK Liberation Day which shows how this is nothing more than a political show instead of a defense drill:
Visitors tour South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on a sunny day on July 4, 2019. (Yonhap)
South Korea will hold its largest military drill on a cluster of islets in the sea between South Korea and Japan, with the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard participating, a senior presidential aide confirmed.
“Yes, South Korea’s military will conduct a biannual defensive military dill on Dokdo. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will participate in the upcoming exercise. Cheong Wa Dae and other relevant ministries are working on it,” presidential National Security Office (NSO) chief Chung Eui-yong told lawmakers at a session of the National Assembly Steering Committee on Tuesday night. The presidential office confirmed the remarks Wednesday afternoon.
“South Korea plans to conduct a military drill on Dokdo twice this year,” Chung said. “Details of the exact timing of the drill will be announced once other relevant specifics have been decided on.”
Military sources here said the drill would last two days, from Aug. 13 to Aug. 14, a day before the country marks the 74th anniversary of its liberation from Japanese occupation on Aug. 15.
You can read more at the link, but why didn’t the Moon administration hold a Korean peninsula defense drill one day before the anniversary of the ending of the Korean War last month? They should have immediately held a Dokdo defense drill last month when the Chinese and Russians violated not only the South Korean ADIZ, but the airspace over Dokdo.
The North Koreans and Chinese are the real threats to the peninsula, not the imaginary Japanese boogeymen the Korean left likes to promote.
As every Korean politician knows, you can’t exploit anti-Japanese sentiment without sensationalizing the Dokdo issue. Some needs to tell the Blue House this is 2019 and not 1941:
South Korean protesters chant during a rally to denounce Japan’s new trade restrictions on South Korea in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Aug. 3. AP-Yonhap
In a move to protest Japan’s decision to remove it from a list of trusted trading partners, South Korea plans to hold a joint military exercise on a cluster of islets that sits in the sea between the neighboring countries, a government source said Sunday.
“The Ministry of Defense is considering conducting a joint defense drill on Dokdo this month,” the source said, Sunday. However, he was reluctant to provide specifics as the ministry has not confirmed the details of its plan.
Military exercises were first conducted near the tiny land mass in 1986 and they were made a biannual practice since 2003 with naval ships, marines, military aircraft, maritime patrol boats and relevant combat personnel participating. A 3,200-ton of naval destroyer, maritime patrol vessels, P-3C anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft and F-15K fighters are typically mobilized during the drill, according to the ministry.
What is ironic about this is that the Russians have done something more provocative than the Japanese have ever done with Dokdo. So are all the Dokdo crazies going to go protest in front of the Russian embassy now?:
South Korean warplanes fired hundreds of warning shots at a Russian military aircraft that entered South Korean airspace on Tuesday, defence officials said, while Russia denied violating any airspace and accused South Korean pilots of being reckless.
It was the first time a Russian military aircraft had violated South Korean airspace, an official at the South Korean Ministry of National Defence said in Seoul.
The incident, which also involved China and Japan, could complicate relations and raise tension in a region that has for years been over-shadowed by hostility between the United States and North Korea.
Two Russian Tu-95 bombers and two Chinese H-6 bombers entered the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) together early on Tuesday, the South Korean defence ministry said.
A separate Russian A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft later twice violated South Korean airspace over Dokdo – an island that is occupied by South Korea and also claimed by Japan, which calls it Takeshima – just after 9 a.m. (midnight GMT Monday), according to the South Korean military.
You can read more at the link, but this is the first time a foreign aircraft has violated ROK air space and warning shots were fired. Despite all the Japan bashing over the years on the Dokdo issue they have never done anything close to this. Don’t forget that the Chinese are involved in this as well. Will any of the so called patriotic Koreans show up and protest in front of the Chinese embassy?
In my opinion this appears to be a planned provocation by the Chinese and the Russians to stir the pot between the ROK and Japan since they both claim the Dokdo islets.
It is ironic that South Korea is holding defense drills against a threat that will never happen from the Japanese while at the same time opening up the DMZ and not training against the North Korean threat that is an actual threat to attack the entire country, not just a pile of rocks in the ocean:
Despite bad weather, South Korean troops kicked off a regular exercise Thursday to hone their combined capabilities to defend Dokdo, a pair of rocky islets in the East Sea. The two-day maritime drills involve the 3,200-ton Gwanggaeto the Great destroyer and several other Navy and Coast Guard ships. The military canceled a plan to mobilize such aircraft as F-15K fighter, P-3C maritime surveillance plane and UH-60 helicopter on the day due to inclement weather, according to a Navy official. It has also postponed a Marine Corps landing exercise until Friday.
South Korea urged Japan on Tuesday to retract its repeated territorial claim over Dokdo, a pair of rocky outcroppings in the East Sea, saying it will only impede efforts to move forward bilateral ties.
It was a reminder of longstanding diplomatic rifts between the neighboring countries despite a call for firm unity among regional powers to handle Pyongyang’s recent peace overtures.
In a statement, South Korea’s foreign ministry denounced the description of sovereignty over Dokdo in Japan’s yearly foreign policy document, known as the Diplomatic Bluebook, reported to the Cabinet earlier in the day. [Yonhap]
Maybe the ROK government should summon the Japanese ambassador and have Flag Eater Man, Finger Chopping Lady, Knife in the Gut Man, Weed Killer Man, the Dokdo Riders, and Bee Man all to waiting for him so they can demonstrate their Dokdo patriotism. Despite the hyperbole over this issue, I believe Korea clearly wins on the Dokdo debate, but why muddle this issue with the stupid East Sea issue?:
The ministry summoned Koichi Mizushima, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a formal protest. He refused to answer questions from reporters, entering the ministry building.
Kim Yong-kil, director general for the ministry’s Northeast Asian affairs, told the minister that Seoul can’t accept Tokyo’s unilateral naming of the body of waters between the two nations, officials said.
In the diplomatic paper, Japan said the waters shouldn’t be called the East Sea.
“In particular, (Kim) made clear that (the government) can’t accept Japan’s unjust claim regarding the East Sea name,” the ministry’s spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said at a press briefing. “(He) stressed that the East Sea is the correct name that has been used for more than 2,000 years in our country.”
f Koreans want to call the body of water East Sea I have no problem with that, but internationally the term Sea of Japan makes more sense. That is because East Sea is not East of Japan and thus makes no sense for an international observer not invested in the Dokdo/East Sea issue when they see it on a map. Korea would make a better case for renaming the body of water if they had a more generic description such as “Asian Sea”.
They could always go with my suggestion and just call it the “Nameless Sea”.
There is a need for a country to register a protest about stuff like this. I’ve been with Korean diplomats trying to get American school districts to stop calling a body of water the “Sea of Japan.” But at some point you’re just embarrassing yourself. https://t.co/0lk78sYcv6
South Korea has custom made furniture for Friday’s summit between President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un ― with chairs featuring Dokdo controlled by Seoul but claimed by Tokyo.
One thing the rival Koreas share is a resentment of Japan, which imposed brutal colonial rule on the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and the gesture is likely to irritate Tokyo.
Japan and the South are both US allies but their relationship is strained by historical and territorial issues, including Dokdo, islands controlled by Seoul but claimed by Tokyo.
The new walnut chairs to be used by the two leaders’ seven-strong delegations at Friday’s summit at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) each feature a map of the peninsula.
The tiny islands are clearly marked, pictures released by the Blue House showed Wednesday. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but hatred of Japan is one thing that politicians from both North and South Korea can agree on.
