Category: Dokdo Madness

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.

The Dokdo Riders have been out of the spotlight for a while now but Jeff over at Ruminations in Korea has a great wrap up of the Dokdo Riders mission to bring awareness to the issue on every American’s mind, the Dokdo Islands. A absolutely hilarious read.

While you are it you can check out the Dokdo Rider website as well and check our Hanguk Heroes current progress across Europe. They may not have been drawing large crowds in the US, but they are drawing huge crowds in Europe:

Maybe their new found fame is because of the new hot chick they have moonlighting with them now:

Let’s see world tour, motorcycles, cute girls, attending the World Cup, etc. all for free. The Dokdo Riders are truly geniuses.

Maybe Kim Jong-il was really just trying to sink the Japanese coast guard boat off of the Dokdo islets:

The North¿s short- and mid-range missile launches continued for nearly four hours starting at 3:32 a.m. According to government officials, all dropped into the sea on the near side of the Japanese archipelago.

In the midst of all this, the South Korean research vessel Haeyang 2000 pushed on into waters surrounding Dokdo, where it was met by a warning radio call from a Japanese patrol boat to stop. The Haeyang responded it was conducting an oceanic survey of Korean territorial waters and warned the Japanese boat not to interfere. The Japanese did not attempt to seize the vessel as it was escorted by a Korean Coast Guard ship.

This is why the US military has to maintain a strong presence in Northeast Asia because you have a brutal dictator shooting missiles all over the place and the two countries that should be putting up a united front against Kim Jong-il are busy fighting with each other over two stupid rocks.

The Great Dokdo War which holds the fate of all mankind within it’s balance may be entering a new crisis:

Korea has decided to push ahead with a scientific survey next week near Dokdo, a set of rocky islets in the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan), setting the stage for another diplomatic confrontation with Japan.
The Maritime Affairs Ministry said yesterday that on Monday it would send a 2,500-ton ship to the islets, which Japan also claims and calls Takeshima, to conduct research on sea currents for about two weeks. The decision could aggravate the already knotty ties between the countries.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Shinzo Abe, called on Korea to refrain from carrying out the planned survey. “It is important for both parties to respond to the issue over the scientific maritime survey by exercising self-restraint,” he said in a news conference in Tokyo yesterday.
The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Japan’s maritime police would send patrol boats to the area if Korea goes ahead with the research.

I have been playing around with Google Trends and it is an interesting tool to see who from what countries are searching for certain terms. After playing around with this for a while I thought what a great tool to use to once and for all see if anyone else in the world gives a crap about the Dokdo Islands controversy. Judging from the results you will see that no one else outside of Korea gives a crap about Dokdo either.

4. Australia

6. United Kingdom

Look who is making a visit to the Dokdo islets:

South Korea’s ruling party chairman made a surprise visit to a string of disputed islets Monday and said the country must defend them at any cost, amid heightened tensions with Japan over rival claims to the territory.

Chung Dong-young’s visit came as a top Japanese diplomat was set to arrive in South Korea to try to repair bilateral ties battered by recent spats over the islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.

Japan’s Senior Vice Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhisa Shiozaki was scheduled to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon later Monday.

Chung, a former unification minister, warned that Japanese moves to deny South Korea’s sovereignty over the islets would bring unhappy results to both sides, and that Japan will be held responsible.

“Dokdo cannot be the subject of any negotiation or dispute,” Chung said on his one-day trip to the islets, according to a transcript provided by the Uri Party.

This is really no surprise that Chung is trying to play to Korean nationalism to improve his own political standing. As the former South Korean Unification Minister he was one of the masters of using anti-Americanism to improve his own political standing as well. If Chung likes Dokdo so much how about he just stays out there and doesn’t come back.