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The Liancourt Rocks are islets in the Sea of Japan(East Sea). Claimed by Japan but administered by South Korea since 6th century.

They are a part of Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province, Korea. Japan regards them as within Okinoshima Town, Oki District, Shimane Prefecture.

History and dispute

The present name of Dokdo is also known as Takeshima(竹島) in Japan and Liancourt Rocks to the west since the charting of Dokdo by French whaling ship in 1849. It is also claimed by Japan after the annexation of Korea in 1910. Daemado is another islands under dispute. See below.

According to Imperial Korean records, Samguk Sagi (1145), the first known reference to the islands in the world, proclaiming them a part of the independent Korean island state of Usan-guk, dates from the Silla Dynasty in 512 AD. Usan-guk became a protectorate of Goryeo in 930 as Silla fell. Usan-guk eventually fell under Jurchen invasion and later was administered directly by the mainland government.

According to Japanese records, the islands, then known as Matsushima, were granted to the Ooya and Murakawa families of Hoki province (modern Tottori) by the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 1650s. The two families were actually two fishermen who happened to be drifted to Ulleung islands in 1616. They found that the islands had not been occupied and asked government a permission to fish and log trees. The permission lasted for about 80 years. The common English name, Liancourt Rocks, was given by a French whaling ship in 1849. Korea and Koreans always regarded the islands as their territory. For Japanese, it was for practical purpose and out of chance claimed by fishermen who did not have any historical knowledge or legal consequences. Since the forceful annexation of Korea to Japan by the emperial Japan in 1910, Japan claimed them as their territory. The reason why the islands were not inhabitted was due to lootings of Japanese pirates in the Far Eastern seas. Korean government occasionally conquered and erradicated them, but Japanese pirates kept attacking islands and coastlines of Korea. To protect residents, Korea occasionally evacuated some parts of the coast and islands.

After a request by a Japanese fisherman, on February 22, 1905 upon the loss of Korean naval sovereignty after the Russo-Japanese War the islands under the name Takeshima were proclaimed a part of Shimane prefecture in Japan under the doctrine of terra nullius.

During World War II, the island was used as a naval base by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Upon Japan's defeat and occupation by the Allies, SCAP Instruction #677 of January 29, 1946 excluded the islands from Japan's administrative authority. However, the instruction specifically stated that it was not an 'ultimate determination' of the islands' fate, and all other islands listed in the document were eventually returned to Japan. The 1952 Treaty of San Francisco, which settled the sovereignty of most other disputed islands, did not mention the islands.

On January 12, 1953, the Government of South Korea ordered the army to enforce their claim on the island, and in the same year on April 20, South Korean volunteer coast guards set up camp on the island. On June 27, 1953, two Japanese coast guard vessels landed on the East Islet, drove off the Korean guards and set up a territorial marker, but did not attempt permanent occupation. The Koreans soon returned and several armed skirmishes followed, leading to the sinking of a Japanese ship by Korean mortar fire on April 21, 1954. Japan protested and suggested arbitration at the International Court of Justice, but the offer was rejected by South Korea who has had experienced exactly the same tactics in the occupation and annexation in the early 1900s. A Japanese ship was sunken by Korean coastal fire arms requesting withdrawl from the Korean territory. This led a modernized Japanese army invasion to Korean peninsula. After the incident, South Korea built a lighthouse and helicopter landing pad on the islet, which it has occupied ever since.

Current situation

The issue of sovereignty over the islands was omitted from the 1965 Basic Relations Treaty, and both sides maintain territorial claims. The United States maintains a policy of non-recognition for claims by either side, although several private memoranda recorded in the Foreign Relations of the United States between 1949 and 1951 appear to side with Japan's view and are occasionally brought up as "proof" of American support.

The dispute has periodically flared up again, typically when South Korea acts to change the islets or their status (for example, building a wharf in 1996 or declaring them a natural monument in 2002), resulting in a reassertion of the territorial claim by Japan. In 2002, two Japanese textbooks questioning Korea's claim to the islets were published, leading to protests in South Korea. Another conflict arose in March 2005, when the prefectual assembly of Shimane passed a bill to designate February 22 as "Takeshima Day," to commemorate the centenary of Japan's claim to the islands.

In a survey performed in both countries, the level of interest in Japan in relation to the islets was substantially lower, whereas over 99% of people surveyed in Korea believed that the islets were part of their country. Korea shows the islets in all of their official maps, and includes them in weather forecasts as well.

The Republic of Korea currently has stationed a small police unit on the islands, and there are a handful of Korean citizens who list the islands as their residence.

According to the North Korean constitution, the entire Korean peninsula and surrounding islands, including Liancourt Rocks, belongs to North Korea (as in the South Korean constitution) and North Korean' state press heavily criticizes Japan for their "attempts to invade the Republic territory."

External links

• Cyber Dokdo Web Page by Gyeongsangbuk-Do Province,Korea
• Korean Government's Policy About Dokdo
• Dispute Over Dokdo (Korean view)
• Japan's Position on Dokdo (by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Dokdo Museum in Ulleung-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-Do, Korea
• Dokdo.net | Dokdo.com
• Bombing of Dokdo by US

• Islands of Korea
• Islands of Japan
• Disputed territories