Dokdo Dispute Between Korea and Japan Heating Up

"So the [Japanese] claim to Dokdo is part and parcel to the claim
to Korea itself. So if the annexation of Korea was improper, the
annexation of Dokdo is similarly improper."
- John Van Dyke
   Professor of Law
   University of Hawaii

Things are heating up in Korea.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun gave a speech last week to the Korean people that Dokdo is rightfully theirs. The Korean

government announced last week that a task force was sent to

Dokdo to protect the island from Japan's claims to the territory.

Even more disheartening is Japan's refusal to call the island by it's current name of Dokdo. Instead, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Japan refers to the island as Takeshima.

According to the Japanese government, Japan was historically
first to lay claim to Dokdo as a part of their empire in the middle of
the 17th century, when the Tokugawa Shogunate granted families
fishing rights to the island. They again lay claim to the island

through terra nullius-or "no man's land"-as under their sovereignty in 1905, months before Korea itself became a Japanese

protectorate.

Both these claims are invalid. The Samguk Sagi - or the History of Three Kingdoms of Korea - is the oldest record of Korean history

which was written in 1145. It describes the "Usan state"  as part of

the Silla Kingdom.
Also in 1432, Sejong Sillok - or the Chronicle of King Sejong - also mentions the two islands of Usan-do and Mulung-do consisting of Korean territory. Japanese scholars attempt to discredit King Sejong by claiming that the records claiming the two territories "are close

enough to each other that in clear weather the two islands come

into view," they do not come in view of each other; rather, they

come into view from the mainland, which means that Usan-do is

not the historical Dokdo.

Even so, a 1530 map of Korea marks the Liancourt Rocks as Korean territory.

Later on in the 20th century, Korea and Japan still disputed

ownership of the islands. Even so, Dokdo was incorporated into

the Ulleung county in 1900. Five years later, however, Japan states

that Dokdo is "no man's land" and claims it for itself before

launching an invasion on Korea to expand their empire.

Overall, Japan's claims to Dokdo are weak, as they rely on the

claims that they knew about the island first (which is not the case

according to Korean documents that Japanese scholars have

attempted to discredit). Dokdo has historically been a part of Korea

-whether as the current modernized state or as a part of one of its kingdoms.

Credits: Tony Kim's xanga http://www.xanga.com/supapudgee/