Search Results for: dokdo

Well not really by storm but they were in San Francisco and in accordance with Marmot’s guidance make sure you read Jeff’s take on the Dokto Riders in San Francisco.

I have to agree with Jeff that the Dokto Riders should get some props for playing to Korean nationalism in order to finance their 9 month around the world vacation. Look at how much money they got for this road trip:

Funding comes from $20,000 they earned at part-time jobs, $50,000 from the GS Caltex energy corporation, $20,000 from KIUP Bank, and a $10,000 pledge from the Korean Government Information Agency, which also is supplying postcards and maps to distribute, Kim said.

I wonder if there are any Daemado Riders in the works now?

Korean residents return to Dokto Islets:

Two of the three Koreans who are registered residents of Dokdo islet, Kim Seong-do and Kim Shin-yeol, moved back home yesterday after 10 years. The couple left the islet in 1996 after their house collapsed in a storm. Dokdo is claimed by both Japan and Korea. The Maritime Ministry has repaired the couple’s home, and private groups raised funds to buy a new fishing boat for them.

Although the Japanese government has made no efforts to regain the island except for occasional assertions of its sovereignty and suggestions to take the matter to international arbitration, Koreans have been riled by incidents such as last year’s designation of Feb. 22 by Shimane prefecture as “Takeshima Day,” the island’s Japanese name. The timing of the announcement of the couple’s return to the islet was probably no coincidence.

I love that last line “probably no coincidence”. Yeah, I would have to say so. However, I don’t how these people can like living on Dokto. These two rocks are small and far from anything. I’m willing to bet the residents won’t be living there indefinitely.

For more on Dokto the Party Pooper’s February Dokto Post is a must read.

I wonder if the fact the US Marines are training Japanese soldiers in amphibious warfare tactics will be twisted to mean that the US is training the Japanese military to attack Dokto?:

Japanese soldiers left for the United States on Tuesday to conduct training with the US Marines simulating the recapture of an island from enemies, an official said. It will be the first joint war game between the allies premised on an invasion of an isolated island off Japan, an official of Japan’s Defense Agency said on customary condition of anonymity.

About 125 troops from Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in California will hold month long exercises at Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to the defense official. In the scenario, soldiers will infiltrate a captured island by boat and retake it after exchanging fire with the enemy, the official said, though no live ammunition will be used during the exercise.

The Japanese media is reporting that the exercise is in preparation of a Chinese attack on the remote southern Japanese islands:

Local media reports have said the joint exercise is aimed at showing a military “presence” in small southwestern Japanese islands off Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu in view of China’s military expansion in recent years. The official said he could not comment on those reports.

Rest easy Koreans, I don’t think there is an invasion fleet in the world that can defeat the Army of drunk ajummas that visit that island.

Hat Tip: Coming Anarchy

It is official now, I have now determined that the Dokdo Islets do in fact belong to Korea. I have been there and seen for myself that there are in fact Koreans on the island. Many of them were drunk, but never the less they were in fact Koreans.

My adventure to the Dokdo Islets began in the port town of Mukho just to the north of Donghae on the East Coast:

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I arrived in the city the night before the departure of the boat that would take me to Dokdo. My wife and I found a cheap hotel to stay at and then we began to look for a place to eat. While looking for a place to eat I ran into a couple of young guys who I thought were maybe Americans. It turned out they were Russian sailors. I always figured Russian sailors would look well like scruffy sailors, but these young guys looked like they were ready to go to a Justin Timberlake concert with there clubbing clothes and died blonde hair.  I think they mistook me for a Russian like I mistook them for Americans.  As I walked by they asked me something in Russian. I know absolutely nothing in Russian, so I responded by telling them that I am an American in English and they seemed surprised by that. The two guys knew very little English and amazingly enough we began to talk a little in Korean. These guys told me that they have been to Korea many times on their boat and had learned some Korean. It was a little surreal talking to Russian guys in Korean. We talked for like only three minutes before we parted. They smell liked alcohol and looked like they were looking for their next bar to hit up. They wanted my wife and I to go with them, but we declined because we were tired and had plenty on our agenda for the next day.

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The next morning we headed for the Mukho Harbor Station to get our tickets for the boat. To get tickets to Dokdo you need to make sure you reserve them in advance because they are hot items right now. At the station you could buy all the anti-Japanese shirts, hats, and Taeguki flags you needed to show your support for Dokdo and further enrich the marketers making a killing off the whole Dokdo craze. The shirt below says “Dokdo Bodyguard” and on the back of the shirt is says that “Daemado is ours too”:

This refers to the Japanese island of Tsushima just to the south of Pusan that many Koreans believe to be Korean territory taken from them by Japan hundreds of years ago.

Mukho ferry boat terminal.

At the station you need to be prepared to fight for every inch of space you have. The amount of pushy ajumas will force you to have to push and shove just to hold your spot in the ticket line and also the boarding line. If you are a foreigner a Customs Agent will check your passport and ask you questions about why you are going to Dokdo. I felt like telling them I was going to claim the isles for America to end the current controversy but I stuck with my story of being curious and wanting to see what the big fuss was all about with these islands. The custom agent must of felt I was up to something sinister because she then asked to see further ID. I then pulled out my military ID, which further surprised her. She asked why I wasn’t at work, so I told her I was on leave. She still must of thought something was fishy because she then asked to see my leave form. Anyway I eventually did get through Customs and boarded the boat. Be advised though that if you are Japanese you will not be allowed to board the boat. Matter of fact if you don’t have a passport they won’t let you board the boat.

The East Sea was remarkably calm that day and the boat cut through the ocean waves without any problems. I had taken some sea sickness medicine before I went on the boat but I really didn’t need it with the water so calm. The inside of the boat was like sitting in an airplane. The only difference was that there was more leg room and more drunks.

Inside seating on the ferry boat.

That is right, the boat was full of drunks. I would estimate 60% of the boat was older ajummas and 30% older ajushis while the other 10% was misc. people like my wife and I. Anyway these older ajummas and ajushis were having the time of their lives. They were dressed in their Dokdo / anti-Japanese finest and openly drank soju bottles on the boat. The boat employees didn’t care. So the boat was a raging party before we even reached Dokdo. Ajushis were singing and stumbling all over the place and grabbing other ajummas and dancing around. If you weren’t in a Dokdo mood after this the multiple TV’s played Dokdo videos over and over again proclaiming Korea’s ownership of the isles. The only time the boat employees tried to calm the party was when the partiers started stumbling into rooms and offices on the boat they weren’t supposed to go into. Overall it was a big Dokdo orgy of nationalism.

This made me wonder if all the bus tour groups of older ajushis and ajummas you see around the country at the different tourist areas are like this? Are they all just wild parties of older people making up for their lost party years of their youth due to war, famine, and hard work reconstructing the country?

Anyway after 5 hours of sailing and quick stop at Ullongdo Island, we reached Dokdo. Was it the beatiful unspoiled land I had envisioned and every Korean would lead you to believe? No it was nothing more than two unimpressive rocks:

My first view of the Dokdo Islets.

A closer view of the islets as the boat approached them.

They were both mostly brown rocks with no trees. There was occassional patches of green grass on the rocks. There was a lot of birds though. Dokto is supposed to be a bird migratory pit stop. There was lots of smaller rocks sticking up out of the crystal clear water. Overall, I wouldn’t call Dokto beautiful but is was definitely unusual. Especially for being so far out in the middle of no where.

Birds are the only thing more numerous then fishermen around the islets.

A close up look at the more unusual rock formations of the Dokdo Islets.

Even if you thought these rocks seemed pretty worthless you wouldn’t know it by the Koreans’ reactions. People broke out in the Korean national athemn and waved their Taegukis as we neared the islands. People were even crying at the sight of the islands. The ajummas stormed all over the deck of the boat and shifted their position to face the island every time the boat moved. It was like standing in a stampede of cattle as the ajummas raced across the deck to get a better view of the islets:

The people on the boat cheered the many fishing boats as we floated by. They looked back with indifference. In the distance you could even see the Korean naval destroyer that patrols Dokdo protecting it from any Japanese horde that may try to seize the islands such as research vessels filled with legions of hostile scientists.

Cable car used to transport supplies to the soldiers stationed on Dokdo.

On the islands there is actually quite a few buildings for the coast guard soldiers. There was more buildings than I expected. It must be boring being stuck on those islands all day though I imagine unless you like bird watching.

Islet garrisoned by Korean military personnel.

The importance of the islands for Korea’s fishermen was quite obvious with the number of fishing boats in the proximity of the islands. There was probably more fishermen than soldiers stationed on the island:

The real defenders of Dokdo, hordes of fishermen.

Overall, my trip to Dokto was at best interesting. If you got the time and patience to go through with this trip I say go for it. The price is not to expensive. A round trip ticket to Ulleongdo Island costs 93,200 won while the round trip ticket from Ullongdo to Dokdo cost 37,500 won for a grand total of 130,700 won for the total transportation costs. But keep in mind when traveling to Dokto that you will be more impressed by the experience than the actual sights. That is unless you are a bird watcher or you have a fetish for ajummas with big visors; Dokdo may then be your cup of tea.

It appears my hunch that the whole Dokto crisis is about fishing rights may in fact be correct. Andy over at the Flying Yangban has things covered from Korea while the Japundit has things covered from Japan. The Marmot has also put together some quality information on this topic.

A further development was that the city of Masan just declared Daemado Day. From the Marmot:

The city council of the port town of Masan, South Gyeongsang Province just passed ? by a vote of 29 to 1 ? an ordinace declaring June. 19 ?Daema Island Day.? June 19, as everyone knows, is the day in 1419(1st year of the reign of King Sejong) when Gen. Lee Jong-mu left Masan Harbor to launch his expedition to conquer Daema Island, known to those cretins on the other side of the East Sea as Tsushima. I don?t have time at the moment to translate the ordinance or go into the history, but suffice it to say it appears the crafty city councilmen borrowed the language of Shimane Prefecture?s ?Takeshima Day? ordinance.

Pretty good move by the city of Masan. I wonder what is going to happen next? Maybe Mongolia will claim Cheju-do since they once owned Cheju during the height of the Mongol Empire. However, that is about as likely to happen as Korea ever giving up Dokto.

According to the Asahi Shimbun Japan wants Korea’s Dokto island not because of nationalistic feelings but because of fishing rights.

A century ago, Shimane Prefecture claimed Takeshima island as part of its territory. The remote island is located in the Sea of Japan. On Thursday, a Shimane prefectural assembly committee approved a bill to designate Feb. 22 as “Takeshima Day.”

It aims to formally establish territoriality over the island, which is under de facto South Korean rule. The Shimane assembly’s plenary session is expected to adopt the bill next week.

It is not hard to see why Shimane wants this bill passed. An agreement between Japan and South Korea recognizes a wide area of the Sea of Japan as “provisional waters” under joint administration, where fishermen of both countries are allowed to operate unencumbered by the dispute over sovereignty. This area does not include the 12- nautical-mile zone around the island, which South Korea claims as part of its territorial waters.

Fishing communities in Shimane and other prefectures along the Sea of Japan coastline have been worried for some time that they are not getting a fair deal. They say South Korean ships are overfishing in the area.

It was these anxieties that fueled Shimane’s move to declare Takeshima Day on the centennial of its land-grab. In short, the bill reflects the concerns of local communities.

From what I have been told is that the waters around Dokdo are filled with fish. Apparently the Shimane prefecture just keeps bringing up the Tokto issue in an effort to put pressure on the South Korean government to open up the waters around the island to Japanese commercial fishing. I don’t see any chance of this happening though. The Koreans will never give up even the slightest bit of sovereignty over Tokto; even territorial waters.

This looks like some good training:

 South Korea and the United States will begin their large-scale amphibious landing exercise in the southeastern city of Pohang and the eastern coast this week to build up the allies’ combat readiness posture and interoperability, the South’s Navy and Marine Corps said Sunday.

This year’s Ssangyong (double dragon) exercise, which runs from Monday through Sept. 7, will mobilize division-level landing forces and some 40 vessels, including two amphibious assault ships, the ROKS Dokdo and the ROKS Marado, as well as the USS Boxer, according to military officials.

The drills will also bring together some 40 aircraft, such as F-35B radar-evading jets, and around 40 amphibious assault vehicles, the Navy and Marine Corps said in a joint release.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing that President Yoon agreed to a meeting with Lee Jae-myung where he basically told Yoon he needs to agree to things to help put his wife in jail and help the oppostion impeach him:

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung asked President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday to agree to a special probe into suspicions surrounding a Marine’s death and to resolve suspicions surrounding his family in an apparent reference to first lady Kim Keon Hee.

Lee made the demands during his first-ever meeting with Yoon at the presidential office, which followed the ruling People Power Party’s humiliating defeat to Lee’s Democratic Party (DP) in the April 10 parliamentary elections.

Lee also asked that the president accept his election pledge to give 250,000 won (US$182) in cash handouts to the entire population and agree to a special bill aimed at determining the truth behind the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush that left 159 people killed.

Yonhap

And then for good measure Lee Jae-myung throws in some Dokdo nonsense where he actually tries to get people to believe Yoon would give up the islets to Japan:

Lee listed a series of other issues, including those related to foreign policy, saying he hopes Yoon will consider shifting to a “national interest-centered practical diplomacy” and make active efforts to ensure “the people’s pride is not damaged with regard to relations with Japan,” citing Tokyo’s territorial claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, the two countries’ shared history and the release of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see what the point of this meeting was? If Yoon thinks giving Lee Jae-myung this forum to attack him will help in future cooperation, I think he is mistaken. The only thing the opposition wants to cooperate with Yoon on is impeaching him like they did to former President Park. By the way is that not the two most forced smiles you have ever seen in the above picture?

Trilateral cooperation between the U.S., Japan, and the ROK continues to develop. I doubt President Biden even knows what Dokdo is, but if he can negotiate some kind of settlement on that issue it would greatly enhance bilateral relations:

An upcoming three-way summit between the leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan will provide much-needed momentum for the two Asian nations to boost security cooperation, analysts said Wednesday, as Washington pushes to cement trilateral cooperation to tackle common challenges the three countries face.

U.S President Joe Biden invited President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida for a three-way meeting at Camp David in Maryland on Aug. 18, which would be the first standalone trilateral summit. The three leaders have held joint meetings on the sidelines of multilateral gatherings until now, but have never held a formal trilateral summit. 

The three leaders are expected to announce a joint statement highlighting strengthened trilateral cooperation against North Korea’s aggression and closer economic ties. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This should be no surprise that protesters would come out against trying to improve relations with Japan:

Soon after President Yoon Suk Yeol gave a key address, calling Japan a partner for South Korea’s regional security and economy, some hundreds held a rally on Independence Movement Day on Wednesday, urging him to keep his promise of resolving historic disputes with the neighboring country including the one over sexual slavery during its 1910-45 rule of Korean Peninsula.

In the late morning chill, around 200 civic activists gathered near the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul, holding paper cutouts of yellow butterflies — a symbol of victims representing a wish to escape from violence and fly — chanting “apologize,” and demanding compensation from Japan.

The protest was a part of the 1,585th weekly rally protesting Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II that has been held for the last 30 years.

Lee Yong-soo, a 93-year-old victim of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, took over the microphone, said she still has a faith in President Yoon, and demanded his administration to send the matter to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

“The then-presidential-candidate Yoon Suk Yeol was the third person to visit me, and he said he would resolve the comfort women issue even if he wasn’t elected. His words touched me,” she said. “I don’t think that he lied (at that time), and I will believe in him.”

Watching Lee’s tearful speech, 63-year-old Kim Deok-yeon said he has participated in the demonstration since last year to raise awareness, especially among the younger generation.

“These people were forced to become sex slaves of Japan’s wartime brothels, but Japan seems reluctant (to take responsibility). As a Korean citizen, I couldn’t stand my anger toward Japan for committing such atrocities,” he said, referring to the victims as “survivors of a dark part of history.”

Kim stressed the importance of educating Korean students about undistorted facts in and out of the country, lamenting Japan’s recognition of Dokdo as part of its territory.

“History doesn’t lie — it has everything recorded down. Now is a time to properly educate the younger generation about our country’s past so that the same history will not repeat itself in the future,” he said, hoping young people would create a change.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but if this 63 year old man really cared about sex slaves then what is he doing about modern day sexual slavery of Korean women in China right now?

According to one report the sexual trafficking of Korean women is a $105 million industry in China. Imperial Japan was obviously wrong about trafficking Korean women 80 years ago which they claim was resolved with the payments made in the 1965 Normalization Treaty. The Japanese government had apologized even started a victim compensation fund before the prior President Moon shut it down for political reasons. Restarting this victim compensation fund appears to be the route that President Yoon is trying to go again, but we will see what happens.