George Bush to find disputed rock is a hard place Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent | July 30, 2008
SOUTH Korea's Prime Minister Han Seung-soo yesterday planted a plaque on a tiny, disputed islet proclaiming "Dokdo belongs to Korea" as the territorial row threatened to entangle US President George W. Bush.
Mr Han, the No2 in President Lee Myung-bak's administration, visited the Dokdo group as a gesture of protest against both Japan's claims and the decision of an obscure US agency to redefine it as an area of "undesignated sovereignty" rather than Korean territory.
"Dokdo is the son of our country and historically, geographically and legally belongs to us," Mr Han said, according to reporters who accompanied him and two other government ministers. "It cannot be taken away by anyone."
Japan's chief government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura, later criticised Mr Han's visit as "inappropriate".
Already braced for mass protests when Mr Bush comes to Seoul next week, Mr Lee's weakened administration must now contend with the visit becoming entangled with the volatile Dokdo question.
South Korean popular fury is principally directed at Japan, where the Education Ministry has reignited the long-simmering row by proposing that Takeshima, as the Japanese call the group, be described in new junior high school teaching guidelines as an "integral part of Japan".
Seoul has withdrawn its Tokyo ambassador, is considering sending marines to replace the police post on the islets and today will stage a joint navy-airforce exercise in the area.
The Dokdo group, two islets and a scattering of rocks and reefs, 210km east of the Korean mainland and about equidistant from the Japanese coast, is in richfishing grounds and the surrounding seabed covers extensive deposits of gas hydrates, semi-frozen natural gas.
But Dokdo is the focus of patriotic passion because Koreans regard it as the first Japanese seizure of their territory, in 1905, five years before the Korean Peninsula was annexed and occupied until August 1945.
Inaugurated in February, Mr Lee is the third successive president to have come into office offering a fresh start to South Korea-Japan relations but he has been wrong-footed by provocations from Tokyo.
The Americans stumbled into the row when it was discovered that the Board of Geographic Names had recently changed Dokdo's status to "non-designated sovereignty" on its website. While a State Department spokesman said the BGN move represented no change in US policy of non-involvement, an official in Seoul said yesterday Mr Lee would raise the Dokdo matter with Mr Bush, although it wasn't on their agenda.
The visit next week was already shaping as turbulent, with fierce protests expected against Mr Lee's decision, under US pressure, to allow 30-month-old American beef into Korea.
Though ostensibly about the health risks of importing beef from a country that has mad cow disease outbreaks, the controversy became a lightning rod for general anti-Americanism and resentment of Mr Lee's ways.
His political standing has been badly hurt by accusations of selling-out South Korea's interests to the US and runs the same risk if he is seen to be conciliatory on the Dokdo question.
[관련기사] 우리나라, 독도
George Bush to find disputed rock is a hard place
Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent | July 30, 2008
SOUTH Korea's Prime Minister Han Seung-soo yesterday planted a plaque on a tiny, disputed islet proclaiming "Dokdo belongs to Korea" as the territorial row threatened to entangle US President George W. Bush.
Mr Han, the No2 in President Lee Myung-bak's administration, visited the Dokdo group as a gesture of protest against both Japan's claims and the decision of an obscure US agency to redefine it as an area of "undesignated sovereignty" rather than Korean territory.
"Dokdo is the son of our country and historically, geographically and legally belongs to us," Mr Han said, according to reporters who accompanied him and two other government ministers. "It cannot be taken away by anyone."
Japan's chief government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura, later criticised Mr Han's visit as "inappropriate".
Already braced for mass protests when Mr Bush comes to Seoul next week, Mr Lee's weakened administration must now contend with the visit becoming entangled with the volatile Dokdo question.
South Korean popular fury is principally directed at Japan, where the Education Ministry has reignited the long-simmering row by proposing that Takeshima, as the Japanese call the group, be described in new junior high school teaching guidelines as an "integral part of Japan".
Seoul has withdrawn its Tokyo ambassador, is considering sending marines to replace the police post on the islets and today will stage a joint navy-airforce exercise in the area.
The Dokdo group, two islets and a scattering of rocks and reefs, 210km east of the Korean mainland and about equidistant from the Japanese coast, is in richfishing grounds and the surrounding seabed covers extensive deposits of gas hydrates, semi-frozen natural gas.
But Dokdo is the focus of patriotic passion because Koreans regard it as the first Japanese seizure of their territory, in 1905, five years before the Korean Peninsula was annexed and occupied until August 1945.
Inaugurated in February, Mr Lee is the third successive president to have come into office offering a fresh start to South Korea-Japan relations but he has been wrong-footed by provocations from Tokyo.
The Americans stumbled into the row when it was discovered that the Board of Geographic Names had recently changed Dokdo's status to "non-designated sovereignty" on its website. While a State Department spokesman said the BGN move represented no change in US policy of non-involvement, an official in Seoul said yesterday Mr Lee would raise the Dokdo matter with Mr Bush, although it wasn't on their agenda.
The visit next week was already shaping as turbulent, with fierce protests expected against Mr Lee's decision, under US pressure, to allow 30-month-old American beef into Korea.
Though ostensibly about the health risks of importing beef from a country that has mad cow disease outbreaks, the controversy became a lightning rod for general anti-Americanism and resentment of Mr Lee's ways.
His political standing has been badly hurt by accusations of selling-out South Korea's interests to the US and runs the same risk if he is seen to be conciliatory on the Dokdo question.
cited from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24098366-25837,00.html