Takeshima/Dokdo Island Dispute | News and Discussion

[Viet]

Opening the thread since there is no actual one relating to Japan and Korea Takeshima/Dokdo island dipute. Dokdo Island is currently administered by the Republic of Korea.

Have fun!

Wikipedia

Liancourt Rocks

The Liancourt Rocks, also known as Dokdo or Tokto in Korean, and Takeshima in Japanese, are a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan. Sovereignty over the islets is disputed between Japan and South Korea.

map

This aerial photograph of Dokdo Island shows both the East Islet (right) and West Islet. The East Islet has a watchtower and living facilities for the ROKs Police Guards as well as a hellicopter pad. The West Islet is home to Dokdo’s long-tme permanent residents, Kim Seong Do and his wife Kim Shin Yeol.

Above image: This aerial photograph shows Dokdo’s West islet in the foreground and East islet behind. Note the numerous large rocks that surround Dokdo. For this reason along with harsh weather conditions mooring on Dokdo is very difficult. (see picture)

 

[Viet]

South Korean merchants plan Japan boycott


Kyodo | Feb 26, 2013
The Japan Times

SEOUL – South Korea’s self-employed merchants said Monday they plan to boycott Japanese products to protest Tokyo’s latest sovereignty claim to a pair of islets controlled by South Korea, according to Yonhap News Agency.

“The boycott is to show the resolve of merchants to protect Dokdo,” Oh Ho Seok, head of the Save Local Stores Alliance, was quoted as saying. Dokdo is the Korean name for the islets, which are known as Takeshima in Japan.

Organizations such as the Federation of Professional Economic-Person Societies, Voter Citizenship Behavior and Save Local Stores Alliance, which have a combined 6 million members, said they will opt not to buy or sell Japanese products starting Friday.

The move by the merchants is the first nationwide effort to boycott products and is timed to start on March 1, a national holiday in South Korea to commemorate a popular uprising to resist Japanese colonial rule in 1919. In the past, smaller organizations have taken such steps with limited impact.

The products that will be affected the most are Mild Seven cigarettes and Asahi beer, although campaigns not to buy Nikon cameras and Uniqlo clothes along with products made by Sony, Toyota and Honda will be pursued as well, Yonhap said.

The boycott is to be a protest over Shimane Prefecture’s holding of an event last Friday to promote Japan’s claim to the islets, despite Seoul’s calls for restraint.

The boycott, meanwhile, is expected to have an impact because the merchants and the stores they own such as small supermarkets and restaurants handle roughly 80 percent of all Japanese products in the country.

 

[Soryu]

well, I wonder how long they will hold that... bad luck for Japan.

 

[Viet]

Japanese holiday ‘celebrating’ disputed islands sparks backlash in S. Korea


Posted by Caitlin Dewey on February 23, 2013 at 9:00 am
The Washington Post

Rival claim: Shimane Prefecture holds its annual Takeshima Day ceremony Friday in the city of Matsue. | KYODO

South Korean national police guard the Takeshima islands in pairs positioned at various lookout points. (Chico Harlan/The Washington Post)


Web users in both Japan and South Korea are up in arms over Japanese celebrations on Friday of Takeshima Day — a quasi-official holiday designed, appropriately, to mark an old territorial spat between Japan and South Korea.

Takeshima, or Dokdo in Korean, are a string of uninhabited volcanic outcroppings in the Sea of Japan. Both Japan and South Korea claim them, a dispute going back at least 60 years. The holiday, for its part, only goes back six years, when a local Japanese council signed it into law ”as hundreds of nationalists sporting paramilitary gear” urged it on.

This year, as in years past, the holiday remains divisive. Japan’s central government sent a representative to celebrate in Shimane prefecture for the first time, reports the Wall Street Journal. Some 50 South Korean protesters gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and South Korea’s foreign ministry promised to make a formal complaint.

Online commenters were less than sympathetic. The blog JapanCrush translated Japanese reactions from Twitter and other sites, most of which it calls “dismissive of Korean anger at ‘Takeshima Day.’ ”

“If you’re going to kick up a fuss, you’re welcome do it in your own country,” one wrote, jokingly.

If nothing else, Takeshima Day remains a reminder that Japan and South Korea haven’t always been friendly. Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and has had, shall we say, “a poor image” there ever since, The Post’s Anthony Faiola reported when the holiday was signed into law in 2005.

Much of the social media fury reflects that ongoing prejudice.

“They’re Koreans, aren’t they? It’s not so surprising,” one user wrote. “They are Koreans, after all.”

 

[Snomannen]

Good for South Korea, such crazy people.

 

[Viet]

well, I wonder how long they will hold that... bad luck for Japan.

Well, we can assume Japan will revenge by boycotting Korean products.

Good for South Korea, such crazy people.

The Kim´s are much more crazy.

 

[Snomannen]

Well, we can assume Japan will revenge by boycotting Korean products.


The Kim´s are much more crazy.

Eastern Northern Chinese and Koreans are known as the craziest people.

 

[Viet]

You tell no one.

Too late!

Western media speculated China is about to turn against the crazy N. Korea regime. The fact that uncle Kim ignored China concern and detonated a nuclear bomb just 100km from China´s border, made Beijing sleepless.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Eastern Northern Chinese and Koreans are known as the craziest people.

Northeast Chinese are Chinese, North Koreans are Koreans, different people is like apple to orange.

BTW, you must be Cantonese mixed with Portugueuse.

To you, everybody outside of Canton must be Northern Chinese.

 

[Snomannen]

Northeast Chinese are Chinese, North Koreans are Koreans, different people is like apple to orange.

BTW, you must be Cantonese mixed with Portugueuse.

To you, everybody outside of Canton must be Northern Chinese.

I grasp my head so hard while reading your post.

 

[Globenim]

So which side are the Americans taking? Which side is America threatening to attack for "defence" if any side claims to be attacked by the other?

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

China should support Korea period: China, Russia and Korea better to unite for common cause against Japan with U.S backing.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

I grasp my head so hard while reading your post.

I meant, why are you comparing the Northeast Chinese with those crazies from the Korean peninsula?

Do you have a personal issue with the Northeast Chinese?

 

[jhungary]

So which side are the Americans taking? Which side is America threatening to attack for "defence" if any side claims to be attacked by the other?

What make you think we would take side??

We don't take side on any dispute that's not involving us. We don't take side on Chinese - Japanese territorial Dispute, we don't take side on Russian - Japanese Dispute, we don't take side on Chinese-Philippine-Vietnam Dispute on SCS, what make you think we will take side on South Korean - Japanese Dispute??

China should support Korea period: China, Russia and Korea better to unite for common cause against Japan with U.S backing.

Such alliance would be a distant dream unless either North Korea took over the South, or for whatever reason US withdraw from South Korea. As long as there are still US Troop in South Korea, this alliance is IMPOSSIBLE.

There are no common clause against US backing. Even Russia want to get closer to the US. Only country in the aforementioned Alliance not aligned to America is China.

 

[Viet]

China should support Korea period: China, Russia and Korea better to unite for common cause against Japan with U.S backing.

You made a mistake: there are two Korea´s.
Are you willing to support uncle Kim regime regardless of what he does?