Does this mean that I need to start stocking up on rations, water, and batteries again as I await the end of the world due to the Dokdo crisis?:
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday that the East Sea islets of Dokdo are a symbol of Korea’s sovereignty restoration, accusing Japan of attempting to claim territorial rights to its former colonial land.
In a special statement broadcast live nationwide, the president vowed to directly confront Japan’s claims to the South Korean Dokdo islets to protect Korea’s history of independence, as well as its sovereignty.
The president began his statement by declaring that, “Dokdo is our land. It is not merely our land. It has a special historical meaning.”
Roh declared that his government would completely review its countermeasures against Japan’s repeated claims to the easternmost South Korean islets, ending its quiet diplomacy as far as Dokdo is concerned.
He emphasized that South Korea will deal sternly with Japan’s physical challenges, stressing that his government would never abandon Dokdo despite any expense or sacrifice to be required.
“South Korea will mobilize all its national and diplomatic resources to take issue with Japan’s unreasonable demands and press Japan to rectify its wrongdoing.”
The president then said that Seoul reserves the right to register Korean names for undersea features in the waters surrounding Dokdo.
I’m sure the Japanese are shaking in their boots now that President Roh has declared (drum roll please) “Diplomatic War” against Japan. Hasn’t he already declared “Diplomatic War” before? What good has that done? It would help if Korea knew how to conduct diplomacy instead of constantly whining which in no way helps its claims to the Dokdo isles. Korea has by the far the strongest case for ownership of the Dokdo Isles and the Japanese know this. So they have to marginalize Korea internationally in order to down play the Korea’s more legitimate claims. Korea continues just to play into Japanese hands with the off the wall responses to the Dokdo issue.
Is it just me or is President Roh sounding more and more like a lame duck?
I guess I no longer need to stalk up on rations, water, and batteries anymore since a global war over the Dokdo Isles has been officially adverted:
Two Japanese Coast Guard vessels that were to embark on a hydrographic survey near Korea¿s Dokdo returned to Tokyo on Sunday. It was the result of Korea and Japan reaching a compromise on Saturday to defuse tensions sparked by Japan¿s plan to send the ships into Korea¿s exclusive economic zone without permission from Seoul.
In a two-day meeting in Seoul, Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart Shotaro Yachi reached a three-point agreement. Japan will stop the hydrographic survey in the East Sea it had planned to complete by June 30; Korea will temporarily put on hold a plan to register Korean names for seabed topography near the Dokdo islets with the International Hydrographic Organization until an ¿appropriate time¿; and the two neighbors will resume talks to demarcate the boundary between their EEZs as early as next month.
Though the Japanese appear to have gotten the better end of this deal, the Japanese Ambassador to Korea may not think so after having to withstand this verbal abuse. (Hat Tip: Nomad)
The Japanese Ambassador to Korea has got to be one of the world’s toughest and most thankless jobs.
Thankfully it looks like President Bush is going to continue to pressure the Chinese over the deportation of North Korean defectors:
President George W. Bush is expected to make a statement on human rights conditions in North Korea in his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday. He is tipped to cite the case of a woman using the alias Kim Chun-hee, who recently escaped North Korea only to be forcibly repatriated by Beijing, according to the Washington Post. Various activist groups that have descended on Washington for the “North Korea Freedom Week” plan to hold an all-night protest against the repatriations on April 28 in front of the Chinese Embassy.
Now if only the South Koreans would get on board too.
To their credit the South Koreans are currently wrapped up in the greatest security threat the country has seen since the Hideyoshi invasion of 1592 with the current Japanese invasion plan to claim the Dokdo isles. With pressing security threats like this who can blame them for not caring about North Korean defectors.
How does doing this help Korea’s claim to the Dokdo Islands?:
An anti-Japan protester, Yang Bong-ho, stabs himself in the stomach with a kinfe to commite suicide demanding Japan abandon a plan to conduct a maritime survey near disputed islets, at a park in Seoul, Wednesday, April 19, 2006. Yang’s condition was unknown after being taken to hospital.
Actions like this only help Japan’s agenda of showing that Korea is an irrational society thus in turn aiding their claims to the Dokdo isles in regards to global public opinion, with the few people that actually give a crap about anything that has to do with Dokdo.
The fate of the entire world continues to hang in the balance due to the latest Dokto crisis between South Korea and Japan. Don’t worry though because the South Korean government in their infinite wisdom on this issue may ask Kim Jong Il for help defending the island from those dastardly Japanese oceanic research scientists:
The two Koreas may discuss the threatened incursion of a Japanese research vessel into Korea?s exclusive economic zone during the inter-Korean ministerial talks starting in Pyongyang this Friday. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he would ?talk to the unification minister? about the matter.
Ban was answering a question from Uri Party lawmaker Choi Sung in the National Assembly. Asked if Korea will seize the Japanese research vessel if it violates the EEZ in the course of what Japan claims is a hydrographic survey near Dokdo, Ban said, ?Concrete steps will be determined depending on how the situation progresses.? The chief diplomat agreed with commentators that it is ?highly likely that Japan is attempting to turn the sensitive Dokdo area into an area of territorial dispute by violating our sovereignty over the islets.?
First of all, what does North Korea have to do with the Dokto controversy between South Korea and Japan. Secondly what could North Korea even do if they do get involved in it? Nuke the research vessel with a No Dong Nuclear tipped warhead? Probably more threatening would be to shut down some pachinko parlors in Osaka? That will really show those wicked Japanese who is boss.
Bringing in the North Koreans into this mess would only play into the Japanese government’s hands because it would further demonstrate the ROK government as behaving irrationally over this issue. The more irrational the ROK government is, the more foreign governments will tend to side with the Japanese government on this issue.
Plus the absurdity of asking North Korea for assistance on this issue just cannot escape me. Remember the North Koreans are the same people who deliberately planned, ambushed, and cold bloodedly killed six South Korean sailors in the Yellow Sea in June of 2002 in order to draw attention away from the South Koreans hosting of that year’s World Cup competition. No apologies, compensation, absolutely nothing from the North Koreans after that incident. In fact the South Korean government went to great lengths to cover up the attack and keep the grieving families quiet.
So now to go ask the murders of South Korean military personnel to come and help them over a small island territorial dispute with Japan just seems ridiculous to me.
In the spirit of the current mission of the Dokto Riders to bring awareness to all the globe about the greatest international dispute of the modern era that could ultimately lead to the destruction of the entire world, fellow K-Blogger Gangwonbrian has decided to bring awareness to quite possibly the second most greatest threat to international peace and stability, the dispute between Denmark and Canada over the sovereignty of the artic isle, Hans Island. Introducing the Hans Island Rider:
I have been inspired by the Dokdo Riders. I will be a Hans Island Rider and travel across Korea (or, at least, part of Gangwondo) telling people about how Denmark is trying to steal our island, Hans Island, away from us wonderful Canadians. I will ask Koreans whether Hans Island is marked on their maps as Canadian territory or erroneously as Danish Territory.
I need to make some flyers explaining the value of our claim. I hope the flag and the banner don’t slow my cycling down too much.
The Hans Island Rider’s story is so compelling that Oh My News may have been inspired by it to write this article in support of Canada’s claim to Hans Island and the Canadian Artic:
Apparently, if we don’t keep on claiming that the Arctic is ours — by being physically there — Canada has some challengers coming from elsewhere, from countries who might try to assume property rights and raise their own flags there. It is kind of like squatters. If you squat there long enough, you might get residential rights.
This kind of hassle is not new. Canada has ongoing territorial disputes with the Americans over the Beaufort Sea, Denmark is claiming that some silly little island off the coast of Greenland is theirs, and Russia is arguing with us about who has control of the Arctic going right up to the North Pole.
For Canadians, this could be seen as a matter of pride. Our current national slogan is “From sea to sea.” True, some say we should update it to include the northern coastline. So, it should say “From sea to sea to sea.” Others suggest we should make it read “From sea to sea to sea to see.”
Note the fourth key word “see.” That’s not a spelling mistake. That represents the Canadian attitude towards Americans. Every time those folks do something foolish we say “See, there they go again.”
I’m still waiting for an article that blames the whole Dokto and Hans Islands controversies on a sinister plot centered around a CIA black helicopter conspiracy theory to gain oil and natural gas reserves for Haliburton while systematically slaughtering native wild life just for the hell of it.
This post from the Marmot about Japan’s “invasion” plans of the Dokto islands has to be the funniest post I have read all year. For those in America and across the globe that haven’t heard about the Dokto Islands dispute (If you haven’t, don’t worry the Dokto Riders are coming to a town near you), Japan and Korea have long argued over ownership of these two worthless piece of rocks. However, the squabble IMHO is not about the rocks themselves, but about fishing rights. The Dokto Islands extend Korea’s exclusive economic zone of the surrounding ocean for Korean fishermen.
Japanese fishermen dispute this economic zone and politicians back in Japan eager to gain a voting block take small measures like declaring “Takeshima Day” (the Japanese name for Dokto) in order to show solidarity with the fishermen. I think that the Japanese fishing industry feels that if they keep putting pressure on the Koreans over Dokto they will receive a favorable fishing treaty. Dokto is currently occupied by a small Korean military garrison and patroled with Korean naval destroyers even though there is no chance that Japan will seize the islands by force. This is of course 2006, not 1941.
The current flare up is over a research vessel that is going to be traveling in waters near Dokto:
Korea has vowed to stop a plan by Japanese maritime authorities to dispatch a research vessel into Korea’s exclusive economic zone near Dokdo for a hydrographical survey. Korea has not been informed of a move some say is a deliberate ploy to heighten tensions in the sensitive area………………………….
The government has called in Japanese Ambassador Shotaro Oshima to register a strong protest. “Trespassing into our EEZ without permission is an act of unannounced incursion,” Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was quoted as telling the envoy. “If Japan follows through with these plans, we will do everything in our power to stop you.” The ambassador responded the area Tokyo intends to survey falls within Japan?s EEZ. However, this would only be the case if the Dokdo islets were Japanese territory, in which case the line between Ulleung Island and Dokdo would mark the limit of both countries? EEZ.
I wonder if the Korean military contingent on Dokto are practicing recall and battle drills to prepare for this invasion of hostile scientists? These scientists could just be a cover though for this contingent of Japanese SDF Marines that were trained in amphibious operations by the US Marine Corps. If these scientists do land on Dokto the soldiers can call up for reinforcements with their cellphones and they could always sic these dogs on them as well.
Dokto Forever!
Here is another Dokto related story for all you Dokto watchers out there, you know who you are. These two isolated and desolate rocks in the middle of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) has caused so much debate, hatred, and comedy between Japan and Korea that I just feel obligated to record this silliness for future generations to marvel at.
The latest silliness to come out of the Dokto issue I saw on Occidentalism’s site is the release of official “I Love Dokto” underwear:
This underwear should sell like hotcakes to all the people that bought these T-shirts:
If you haven’t had enough Dokto you can now even buy a Japanese language calendar featuring Dokto:
I wonder if the fact that Japan is fielding spy planes will be twisted to mean that this is another provactive measure by the Japanese military to invade Dokdo? Rest easy Dokdo watchers, the spy planes are to be used to spy on North Korean ballistic missiles instead:
Japan will soon decide which long-endurance unmanned spy plane it plans to deploy in fiscal 2007, Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga said Wednesday in London.
Nukaga said he expects the spy drones to allow his agency to gather ballistic missile launch information quickly. The move will bolster Japan’s reconnaissance capabilities to monitor North Korea and other potential threats.
Japan has plans to domestically develop spy planes but the agency will first import them from the United States, Japan’s closest ally, with which it has been engaged in a joint missile defense project since North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japan into the Pacific in 1998.
It will be interesting to see how the Chinese are going to respond to this development.
The Cholla provinces of southeastern Korea have been with 54 centimeters of snow and more wintery weather is on the way:
The KMA yesterday issued heavy snow warnings on Changsong, Hampyong, Yongkwang in South Cholla Province and Kochang, Puan, Kunsan, Kimje in North Cholla Province.
The weather agency said that Seoul, Kyonggi and Kangwon provinces will receive 1 cm of snow Friday, while Ullungdo and Dokdo will receive 5-15 cm and Chungchong and Cholla provinces about 5-25 cm.
