Yoon orders immediate correction to Defense Ministry textbook's incorrect Dokdo description

Diplomacy

Published: 28 Dec. 2023, 16:54 Updated: 14 Jan. 2024, 22:04

Yoon orders immediate correction to Defense Ministry textbook's incorrect Dokdo description

Dokdo islets after snowfall on Dec. 21. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered an immediate correction to the Defense Ministry’s textbook for the soldiers that described Dokdo islets as a disputed territory with Japan.

“Upon receiving a report that the Ministry of National Defense recently published education materials for soldiers describing Dokdo, a territory of the Republic of Korea, as if it were a disputed territory, the president strongly reprimanded the case, called it unacceptable, and ordered an immediate correction,” said Kim Soo-kyung, the president’s spokesperson on Thursday.

The Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday it will recall the textbook in question from all military training.

The Ministry of National Defense’s textbook describes security tensions around the Korean Peninsula and “conflicts of interests” between China, Russia and Japan, reportedly referring to the islets and islands of Diaoyu, Kuril and Dokdo as “areas under territorial disputes.”

The Diaoyu islets are called the Senkaku islets in Japan.

The statement clashes with the position of the Korean government, which maintains that no disputes exist over the Dokdo islets, which are historically, geographically and under international law an integral part of Korean territory.

"Dokdo is clearly our unique territory historically, geographically, and under international law," Lim Soo-suk, spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, told the press in Seoul on Thursday. "There is no territorial dispute over Dokdo. Let me make it clear once again that Dokdo cannot be the subject of diplomatic negotiations or judicial resolution."

The textbook in question also ran several maps of the Korean Peninsula, none of which reportedly included the Dokdo islets.

A page out of the controversial military textbook used by the Defense Ministry to train soldiers shows a map of the Korean Peninsula without indicating the Dokdo islets. [YONHAP]

Dokdo has long been a thorn in relations between Korea and Japan, with the latter laying claim to the islets in policy documents, public statements and school textbooks.

Korea's Foreign Ministry has been protesting for years Tokyo’s claims to Korea’s easternmost islets in its annual defense white papers.

Most recently, Japan’s defense white paper released in July referred to the islets, which Japan calls Takeshima, as one of Japan’s “unresolved” territorial issues.

Korea’s Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry summoned officials from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul that month to protest Japan’s claim.

Korea argues its sovereignty over Dokdo is rooted in centuries-old records and maps, which often show the islets and neighboring Ulleung Island as Korean territory.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry and Korean historians also say Japan recognized Dokdo as Korean territory during most of the 18th and 19th centuries following an altercation between Japanese and Korean fishermen in 1696.

But in 1905, the Japanese cabinet issued an order annexing the islets based on the view that they were terra nullius, or unclaimed territory.

The decision was protested by Korean officials before the country itself was annexed by Japan in 1910.

After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Tokyo’s administration over Dokdo was suspended by order of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), who restricted Japanese access to within 12 miles of the islets.

In the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, which officially concluded the state of war between Japan and the Allies, Tokyo formally renounced its claim to the Korean Peninsula as well as Jeju, Geomun and Ulleung islands.

Although the treaty did not define sovereignty over Dokdo, a memorandum mentioned that Japan’s “administrative separation” from the islets remained active.

Meanwhile, SCAP transferred control over Dokdo in 1946 to the U.S. military administration in southern Korea, which then handed control over the islets to the Korean government when it launched in 1948.

Korea has since maintained a small police detachment on the islets to enforce its title to Dokdo.

Although Japan proposed to bring the issue before the International Court of Justice on multiple occasions, Korea has refused, arguing there is no dispute to settle regarding sovereignty over Dokdo.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]