Various measures to be taken to preclude any dispute over Dokdo
관리자
2008.08.28
Hit 3800
Measures to safeguard the territory by the ruling party and the Government will include study on the feasibility of building a hotel along with a strategy to increase the number of inhabitants on Dokdo islets.
* In connection with the Japanese Government's recent decision to describe Dokdo Islets as Japanese territory, the Government today decided to establish an intra-government task force on Dokdo headed by the Prime Minister and comprised of officials from ministries concerned, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense. The task force is tentatively dubbed as “The Intra-Government Task Force for the Management of Dokdo.”
* The Government announced that the decision was made during the first National Policy Coordination Meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Seung-soo at the Central Government Complex.
* The Government will first set up the Task Force in order to establish a permanent response system. On top of this, the Dokdo Institute will be established under the Northeast Asian History Foundation with the goal of bolstering research, carrying out surveys and enhancing public relations activities about Dokdo.
The participants also decided to construct a Dokdo museum in the Seoul metropolitan area and a memorial hall for An Yong-bok who received a document from the Japanese Empire stating that Dokdo belonged to Korea. An Yong-bok went to Japan during the reign of King Sukjong of the Joseon Kingdom. They also agreed on the need to strengthen education on Dokdo in elementary and secondary schools while trying to work with Japan to develop common history textbooks for school children.
In the meantime, the Korean Government is planning to review all possible new measures to further reinforce Korea's effective control over Dokdo.
Such Government efforts have been taken steadily in accordance with the Act on Sustainable Use of Dokdo, which was enacted in May 2005. After completing the basic plan in May 2006, the Government has been carrying out various projects with a budget of 34.3 billion won over the five years of an action plan. The program includes conducting a precise survey and monitoring the ecosystem around Dokdo, maintaining a residential building for fishermen, providing support for the Dokdo museum on Ulleungdo, establishing a maintenance office and a project for the preservation of Dokdo sea lions.
* Effects of the Reinforcement of Effective Control
According to an explanation of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, “effective control” is regarded in modern international law as being equally as significant as a claim of sovereignty based on historic title. The term here refers to the legal basis needed to justify a certain activity.
On top of this, international law scholars note that the discovery of an island in itself was recognized as prior occupancy, which constituted a requisite for land acquisition in the 16th and 17th centuries. As many countries came to engage in expanding colonies in the 18th century, however, it became impossible to claim validity of an acquisition of a piece of land with discovery alone. As a result, effective control came to constitute a requisite for the acquisition of a piece of territory.
The effects of effective control can be found in international judicial cases over territorial disputes. A case in point is the 1928 Island of Palmas case of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
The Island of Palmas case was the result of the arbitration of a dispute between United States and the Netherlands in 1906 over sovereignty over the Island of Palmas, which is located between the Philippines and Indonesia. In the wake of the Spanish-American War, the Philippines were ceded to the United States. However, the PCA recognized the effective control of the Netherlands over Palmas citing the continuous and peaceful display of State authority over the island from the era of the Dutch East India Company.
* Dokdo in Historical Records
There is no shortage of historical evidence that Dokdo is Korean territory. Some prominent ancient records and maps include Sejong silok jiriji (Geographical Appendix to the Veritable Records of King Sejong, 1432), Donggukyeoji seungnam (Augmented Survey of the Geography of Korea, 1481), Sinjeung dongguk yeoji seungnam (新增東國與地勝覽, A Revised Edition of the Augmented Survey of the Geography of Korea, 1530 or 1531) and Paldo chongdo (The Complete Map of the Eight Provinces of Korea).
In 1897, during the last years of the Joseon Kingdom, the name of the kingdom was changed to Daehan Jeguk (Great Han Empire). On October 25, 1900, the government issued Imperial Edict No. 41, stipulating that Dokdo belonged to the county of Uldo-gun (i.e. Ulleungdo) of Korea. On January 18, 1952, President Syngman Rhee issued the Presidential Proclamation of Sovereignty over the Adjacent Seas, establishing the Peace Line or Rhee Line, which included Dokdo within the jurisdiction of the Republic.
Japan is claiming sovereignty over Dokdo citing that the government of Shimane Prefecture issued Shimane Prefecture Public Notice No. 40 in February 1905, announcing the Japanese cabinet decision of the previous month to annex the island to the prefecture. Japan also argues that Dokdo belongs to it because the San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan of 1951 did not specifically mention Dokdo in the article about territory to be returned to Korea.
In this connection, however, it should be noted that Dokdo was not terra nullius when Japan annexed it on that basis. So the 1905 notice of Shimane Prefecture is null and void under international laws. Tokyo's claim that the Peace Treaty did not mention Dokdo on the list of islands to be returned is nothing but a play on words as a document of that nature cannot possibly list all the geographical names that can run to many hundreds.