Category: Dokdo Madness

It would not be an Inter-Korean Summit without a Dokdo reference:

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.

I am surprised Lufthansa had Dokdo on the map in the first place considering it is such a tiny terrain feature:

German airline Lufthansa has come under criticism in Korea after deciding to remove Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets that Japan falsely claims as its own, from its in-flight maps.

“The software has been updated and will be installed on the aircraft at the end of this week at the latest. The name of the island will not be shown anymore,” Lufthansa told The Korea Times Tuesday.

The company also said it had no intention to insult any party and regretted any inconvenience the decision might cause.

The decision came after a Japanese passenger’s complaint about the description of Dokdo, which was written in English and Japanese, on a Tokyo-Munich flight in December. The passenger claimed the name should be “Takeshima.”

It is unclear whether Lufthansa will remove Dokdo from the aircraft for that route only or all of them, including planes that fly from Korea’s Incheon to Frankfurt and Munich.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but of course some Koreans are calling for a boycott of Lufthansa in order to get it to restore Dokdo to its inflight map.

This photo, taken on Feb. 14, 2018, shows Tokyo’s government website announcing a draft guideline for Japanese high school textbooks to state that Dokdo, a set of South Korea-controlled islets in the East Sea, belong to Japan. This is the first time that Tokyo has specified its territorial claim to Dokdo in high school textbooks. (Yonhap)

Here is the latest from the Dokdo frontlines:

Nearly 1,200 foreigners are “living” on the easternmost Dokdo island, according to data released on Sunday.

The foreigners are among 36,000 “honorary residents” recognized by the Dokdo management office on Ulleung Island, an inhabited island west of Dokdo.

They do not actually live there, but are documented as residents in a promotional campaign for the island.

Since 2010, the office has issued “honorary Dokdo residency” to certificate-seeking visitors regardless of nationality to promote South Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo.  [Korea Times]

I went to Dokdo before 2010 and thus was not offered honorary residence on the island.  Personally I think it is pretty stupid to accept an honorary residence from some place I would never want to live at.

One of the stupidest disputes in Asia continues:

South Korea on Thursday began a two-day military exercise for the defense of Dokdo, a set of rocky islets in the East Sea to which Japan lays territorial claim.

“The Navy will conduct the regular Dokdo defense exercise aimed at preventing the infiltration of external forces into the South Korean territory in conjunction with a flotilla-level field exercise by the Navy’s First Fleet,” according to the Navy. The First Fleet is based in the East Sea.

The exercise is conducted twice a year and involves the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force and police. Navy destroyers, fighter jets and patrol aircraft are participating in the drill, the Navy said.

The exercise immediately drew an angry reaction from Japan, just as past exercises have done. Japan has long claimed the islets, which lie closer to South Korea than Japan, a fact that causes diplomatic tension with South Korea.

The Tokyo filed a protest with Seoul, saying the exercise is “unacceptable,” Japan’s Kyodo News reported, quoting a senior official.  [Yonhap]

So basically the ROK military is exercising for something that is never going to happen because the Japanese are not going to invade Dokdo and the Koreans know that.  This is basically just a public relations stunt for domestic political consumption.  With that said I think the Japanese government would be better served by just keeping quiet instead of criticizing all things Dokdo related.

The Dokdo public relations stunt I want to see is to have the ROK government bring Flag Eater Man,  Finger Chopping Lady, Knife in the Gut Man, Weed Killer Man, the Dokdo Riders, and Bee Man all to Dokdo in a combined display of ROK patriotism.

It seems to me that Japanese geographers would not include Dokdo on their maps in the 1800’s because no one cared about two worthless rocks in the Sea of Japan at the time.  The two rocks only gained value in modern times when national borders and thus exclusive economic zones could be tied to them.  Using the logic this Korean researcher is using does he support Japan’s claim to the Kuril Islands based on this map?:

A scholar recently unveiled maps of a government-approved Japanese textbook which show that Japan did not perceive Dokdo as its territory in the 19th century.

The findings will give weight to Korea’s ownership of the islets off the country’s east coast, which Japan claims as its own, referring to them as Takeshima Islands.

Prof. Han Cheol-ho of Dongguk University’s history education department displayed maps of a geography textbook compiled by Okamura Matsutaro in 1886 in a presentation at a conference held at the Northeast Asian History Foundation’s Institute of Dokdo Research last week.

The textbook’s map of Asia does not mark Dokdo as its territory. On the map is a red line marking Japanese territory, but not only is Dokdo not included in the area inside the red line, Dokdo is not marked on the map at all.

The border lines are marked the same way in textbooks compiled by geologist Manziro Yamagami in 1902 and 1903.

“The textbook’s map of Asia has the Oki Islands marked, but not Ulleungdo and Dokdo,” Yonhap News Agency quoted Han as saying.

“If Japan perceived Dokdo as its territory it would have drawn the islets on the map and stretched the line to include Dokdo.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest development on the Dokdo front:

An antique map from the 19th century depicting the Dokdo Islands as part of Korean territory has been discovered in Japan.

Nam Kwon-hee, a professor of library information science at Kyungpook National University, said he confirmed a Japanese collector has a hand-drawn map of “Daedongyeojido,” a Korean map made by cartographer and geologist Kim Jeong-ho in 1861 that marks Dokdo to the right of Ulleung Island in the East Sea, according to Yonhap News.

The research was co-conducted with Professor Kim Sung-soo of Cheongju University and professor emeritus Yukio Fujimoto of the University of Toyama in Japan.

The map was originally in the collection of the Pyongyang Provincial Library, but was smuggled out via an unknown route. The atlas has the library’s registration number and Aug. 30, 1932, marked as the date acquired.

Professor Nam estimates that the hand-drawn map including Dokdo was created between 1864 and 1889. The map supplements the woodblock book printed by Kim, which does not mark Dokdo.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I look at this map and that does not look like Dokdo at all.  It makes more sense that the island to the right of Ulleongdo is actually Jukdo Island.  The island on the map looks like Jukdo and is located where Jukdo is near Ulleongdo.  Also back in the 1800’s no one would have cared about two insignificant rocks in the middle of the Sea of Japan to make them so big on a map like this.

It did not take long for President Moon to demonstrate his Dokdo cred:

President Moon Jae-in’s tie featuring Dokdo eared seals has become a huge hit and has sold out in major online malls.

Moon wore the tie during a meeting with the major party floor leaders on Friday.

The tie received further public attention the same day when it was caught on camera during a press conference where Moon announced Kim Yi-su as the new chief justice.

A designer company made the tie to celebrate Korea’s 112th anniversary of proclaiming sovereignty over the East Sea island in 2012.

The eared seal on the orange tie is a kind of sea lion that was commonly found on Dokdo in the 18th century. Japanese fishermen hunted the seals to extinction during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.

The tie is priced at 55,000 won ($48).  [Korea Times]

It looks like some Korean politicians needed a bump in the polls by making a Dokdo trip:

A group of South Korean lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties visited their country’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Monday as the nation celebrated the 71st anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.

The group of 10 lawmakers, led by Saenuri Party Rep. Na Kyung-won, said the trip was intended to reassert South Korea’s sovereignty of the islets and was an “inherent” part of their parliamentary activities.

It is the first such trip by South Korean lawmakers since Aug. 14, 2013, when another group of lawmakers traveled to the islets to counter Japan’s territorial claims to Dokdo.

“(I) hope that there will be more such visits in the future,” Na told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. “More attention and support (for Dokdo) on the part of the National Assembly is needed.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I think the assemblyman is right that they need to do more to show their support for Dokdo.  First of all they should have taken picture of all them trying to eat a Japanese flag.  After that one of them should have chopped their finger off,  while another stuck a knife in their gut, followed by drinking weed killer.  Finally one of them should have covered themselves in bees while holding a sign declaring Dokdo as Korean territory.

That is how real defenders of Dokdo show their patriotism!  This group of National Assemblymen are just amateurs with much to learn.

We haven’t had any Dokdo nonsense in a while here on the ROK Drop so here is the latest issue on this front:

Lizzy from K-pop girl group After School has been facing criticism from Japanese netizens after posting several photos of Dokdo Island on Instagram.

The photos showed Lizzy holding the Korean flag and cheering for the Korean guards on the island off Korea’s east coast. In some photos she said: “Dokdo is a Korean territory.”

Japanese netizens responded with fury, with some attacking her personally. They said “Lizzy should not come to Japan, ever,” “Dokdo is Japanese territory,” “You are not very considerate of your Japanese fans” and “Your caption is very offensive to Japanese fans.”

But Korean fans embraced the singer, whose real name is Park Soo-young. They said “We are proud of you,” “Dokdo definitely belongs to Korea” and “You are a patriot! Don’t mind the malicious comments.” [Korea Times]

She must have sagging sales because it seems like these Dokdo promotional events by politicians and celebrities always seem to get them the spotlight they are looking for. I would have been more impressed if she would have ate a Japanese flag, chopped her finger off, stuck a knife her gut, drank weed killer, or covered herself in bees. That is how real defenders of Dokdo show their patriotism.