Liancourt rocks

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Liancourt rocks
The Liancourt Rocks
The Liancourt Rocks
Waters Japanese sea
Geographical location 37 ° 14 ′  N , 131 ° 52 ′  E Coordinates: 37 ° 14 ′  N , 131 ° 52 ′  E
Map of Liancourt Rocks
Number of islands 2 cliffs and 33 smaller rocks
Main island Japanese Ojima
kor. Seodo
Total land area 0.21 km²
Residents 50
Outlines and location of the rocks to each other. Within the two main rocks, the common names of these are found in Japanese (Japanese) and Korean (Korean).
Outlines and location of the rocks to each other. Within the two main rocks, the common names of these are found in Japanese (Japanese) and Korean (Korean).
Liancourt rocks
Japanese name
Kanji 竹 島
Rōmaji after Hepburn Takeshima
Korean name
Hangeul 독도
Hanja 獨 島
Revised Romanization Dokdo
McCune-Reischauer Tokto

The Liancourt Rocks ( Dokdo in Korean , Takeshima in Japanese ) are a group of islands in the Sea of ​​Japan (East Sea), to which Japan , South Korea and North Korea make territorial claims . Until 1945 the islands were administered by Japan, whose colony was Korea between 1910 and 1945. Since 1953, the islands have been de facto administered by South Korea. In order not to take a position in the conflict, third countries sometimes use the English name Liancourt Rocks , which was given to them in 1849 by a French whaling ship of the same name . Another international but rarely used name is the name Hornet Islands , which was given to the rock by the English warship of the same name in 1855.

geography

The Liancourt Rocks are an archipelago of two smaller, mountainous rocks eilanden , surrounded by 33 smaller rocks yet. The total land area is about 0.21  km² (for comparison: the main island of Helgoland is about 1 km²).

The Liancourt rocks are of volcanic origin and are 183 meters apart.

The western island ( Japanese Nishijima = 西 島 or Ojima (also Otokojima ) = 男 島 , literally "Male Island"; Cor. Seodo = 서도 = 西 島 , literally "Western Island"; 37 ° 14 ′ 29 ″  N , 131 ° 51 ′ 58 ″  E ) rises 157 meters from the sea.

The island to the east

The eastern island (Japanese Higashijima = 東 島 or Mejima (also Onnajima ) = 女 島 , literally "female island"; Cor. Dongdo = 동도 = 東 島 , literally "eastern island"; 37 ° 14 ′ 23 ″  N , 131 ° 52 ′ 14 ″  E ) is lower and shallower than the western island.

location

The rocks lie almost exactly on an imaginary central borderline between the Japanese main island of Honshū and the Korean peninsula . The rocks are about 211 km north of Honshū, about 217 km east of the South Korean coast and about 328 km southeast of the North Korean mainland.

However, Japan and South Korea manage islands in the Sea of ​​Japan that are closer to the Liancourt Rocks than the coasts themselves. The closest large and populated islands of Japan from the rocks are the Oki Islands . These are about 157 km southeast of the rocks. The Oki Islands are 67 km north of the Japanese main island of Honshū. The next large and populated island under South Korean administration is Ulleungdo . It is located about 88 km west of the Liancourt rocks. From Ulleungdo it is about 120 km to the South Korean coast.

administration

The affiliation of the rocks is currently unclear. Both states have included them in their administrative structure:

In Japan, the rocks were placed under the administrative sovereignty of the Okinoshima municipality and thus the Shimane Prefecture . In South Korea, they were subordinated to the island of Ulleungdo and thus the Gyeongsangbuk-do region , but they are administered by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries . 50 people live on the island.

History and Claims

In the Korean historical record Samguk Sagi , which was dated to the year 1145, an island called Usan-do ( 우산 도 , Hanja: 于 山 島 ) is mentioned. There the islands are listed as part of the Korean island state Usan-guk (Hangeul 우산국 , Hanja: 于 山 國 ) on Ulleungdo . According to South Korean interpretation, this is the first known mention of the Liancourt Islands. South Korea's claim is based on the fact that after Silla's fall in 930 Usan-guk became a protectorate of Goryeo , and after its fall, the administration of the islands passed directly to the government of mainland Korea. However, a different interpretation is made by the Japanese. Thereafter Usan-do is another name for Jukdo , an offshore island from Ulleungdo.

According to Japanese sources, in 1618 the traders Ōya Jinkichi ( 大谷 甚 吉 ) and Murakawa Ichibē ( 村 川 市 兵衛 ) from Yonago received permission from the Tokugawa shogunate to drive to Ulleungdo, using the archipelago as a stopover. In 1661 both families received official permission to tour the archipelago themselves. When in 1696 the shogunate forbade all trips to Korea because of disputes over the fishing rights of Ulleungdo, the Liancourt rocks were excluded. The archipelago was still called Matsushima in Japanese (Japanese 松 島 , literally: "Pine island").

At the beginning of the 1900s - now Takeshima ( 竹 島 , literally: "bamboo island") or Ryanko-shima ( り や ん こ 島 / リ ャ ン コ 島 , with Ryanko as the Japanese pronunciation of Liancourt) were called extensive sea lions on the islands , since Matsushima now called Ulleungdo hunted (the species of Japanese sea lion was last sighted here in the 1950s). Therefore, on September 29, 1904, the fisherman Nakai Yoshizaburō ( 中 井 養 三郎 ) asked the Ministry of the Interior , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade to incorporate the archipelago into the state association and then to lease the use for 10 years. On January 28, 1905, the Japanese cabinet approved this request on the basis of the terra nullius principle and set the official name to Takeshima (literally: "bamboo island"). On February 22nd, the archipelago was then added to the Oki Island Administration ( 隠 岐 島 庁 ) of Shimane Prefecture . On April 24, 1939, it was incorporated into the community of Goka (today Okinoshima ), but on August 17, 1940, when it was handed over to the Maizuru naval base, it was declared a restricted military area .

After Japan's defeat by the Allies , the islands were withdrawn from Japanese administrative authority by SCAP Order No. 677 of January 22, 1946. However, the order said that this was not a "final determination" of the fate of the archipelago. All other islands mentioned in this order were later returned to Korea. The 1952 Treaty of San Francisco , which clears the sovereignty of most of the other disputed islands, makes no mention of the Liancourt Rocks. Kimie Hara noted that the lack of territorial clearance in the Treaty of San Francisco led to numerous conflicts in the Pacific. Why the US acted this way is unclear. Lee and Van Dyke assume that due to the Korean War there was time pressure to complete it. In addition, the US feared the loss of the area in the event of a North Korean victory. Hara sees the omission of the clarification as an increase in the influence of the USA, which increases through conflicts. The researchers agree that the USA did not act on the basis of historical claims, but took geopolitical interests of the USA and the allies into account.

The police station on the island

In 1952, the South Korean President Syngman Rhee unilaterally declared the so-called "peace line" to the Korean-Japanese border, which proclaimed the Liancourt Rocks as a Korean archipelago. As a result, relations between the two countries deteriorated further and South Korea seized Japanese fishing vessels fishing within the line. Japan took countermeasures. On June 27, 1953, two Japanese coast guard ships landed on the eastern island, evicting the South Korean guards and setting up a territorial marker. However, South Korean fishermen removed them again. The roughly 600,000 Koreans in Japan , who were discriminated against, also suffered from the developments . Japan also banned the import of Korean sea products. Several armed skirmishes ensued, culminating in the sinking of a Japanese ship by South Korean mortar fire in April 1954 . Following this incident, South Korea built a lighthouse , helipad and police station on the eastern island.

The issue of sovereignty over the islands was left out of the treaty of principle between South Korea and Japan of 1965 and both sides still make territorial claims. South Korea makes this clear, among other things, by stationing a unit of the South Korean police.

Current situation

The US has a policy of non-recognition of the claims of both sides, although some private memoranda found in US external relations between 1949 and 1951 seem to support the Japanese viewpoint slightly and are therefore occasionally cited as "evidence" of US support become. In 2005, however, the US embassy in South Korea published to the press: “The US policy in the Dokdo / Takeshima dispute was and will be that the United States will take a position neither for the claims of Korea nor for Japan. Our hope is that the two countries will settle the dispute amicably. "

The dispute regularly flares up again, usually when Japan or South Korea change the status quo of the islands (e.g. by building a shipyard in 1996 or the declaration of a national park in 2004 , which led to an increase in the claim by Japan). After the Japanese Ministry of Education recommended in a non-binding curriculum guideline in July 2008 that the islands should be treated as Japanese territory in school classes, South Korea announced that it would temporarily withdraw its ambassador from Tokyo. The chairman of the ruling Hannara-dang parliamentary group, Hong Joon-pyo , described Japan's current conduct in a parliamentary debate as "no different from its imperialist approach a century earlier when it plundered the Korean Peninsula ". Meanwhile, Japanese elementary and secondary schools are taught with books that depict the Liancourt rocks as Japanese territory. However, in South Korean textbooks, the rocks are referred to as South Korean territory.

The parliament of the Japanese prefecture Shimane decided on March 10, 2005, to declare February 22, the day on which the archipelago was administratively annexed to the prefecture a hundred years earlier, to be the annual "Takeshima Day". This symbolic act made waves in both countries and led, among other things, to the postponement of the planned visit of the South Korean foreign minister to Japan. In addition, the country chief of the South Korean police made a symbolic visit to the unit (around 20 men) stationed on the island.

On August 10, 2012, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was the first President of South Korea to visit the archipelago, which led to renewed diplomatic tensions between Japan and South Korea. During the 2012 Olympic Games in London , the conflict also caused a stir. After winning the soccer game against Japan, the South Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo raised a sign into the camera with the inscription: "Dokdo is our territory" and accepted the later withdrawal of his Olympic medal due to political messages during the Olympic Games.

North Korean claims

Like South Korea , the North Korean leadership considers the Liancourt Rocks ( Tokto ) to be Korean territory. This is not only for nationalistic reasons, but the claims are also shaped by the relations with South Korea and Japan. The North Korean news agency KCNA mostly uses South Korean arguments or pro-Korean scientific research. According to Szalontai (2013), North Korea uses the territorial dispute to weaken and hinder the South Korean-Japanese partnership and also the relationship between these countries and the USA . Since North Korea criticizes not only Japan but also South Korea on the subject, a consensus between the two Korean states is unlikely, according to Szalontai, unless the inter-Korean relations normalize.

background

South Korean postage stamps from 1954 depicting the Liancourt Rocks

The territorial dispute is partly symbolic in nature. In the literature, the meaning of the islands for South Korea is mostly discussed in the context of the Japanese colonization of Korea . According to Bukh (2016), the subject is also important for Korean identity. The island has no major military value, but the sovereign rights in the surrounding sea areas are economically and scientifically significant. On the one hand, rich gas deposits are suspected under the island, and on the other hand, rich fish and crab grounds around the two islands would accrue to the state that won the conflict .

It is considered unlikely that the conflict can be resolved in the near future. Any compromise would set a dangerous precedent for Japan as the country leads disputes over additional islands with Russia and China.

According to the South Korean province of Gyeongsangbuk-do , over 206,000 tourists visited the rocky island in 2016, which actually has no tourist infrastructure. Due to the unpredictable weather and the often high waves, only 60% of the ships can land there.

cards

  • Dokdo (Usan, 于 山 ) was drawn in the west of Ulleungdo (1530, Korea).

  • The oldest map of the Liancourt Rocks (1656, Japan).

  • Oki Islands at the bottom right, Liancourt Rocks in the center and Ulleungdo on the left (1724, Japan).

  • Liancourt Rock and Ulleungdo were drawn on the map, on which the meridian and parallel were drawn (1775, Japan).

  • The Liancourt Rocks were believed to belong to the territory of Japan (1790, Japan).

  • The Liancourt Rocks were drawn as an isolated island other than the Oki Islands (1875, Japan).

  • Dokdo was drawn right next to Ulleungdo (1899, Korea).

See also

literature

  • Kimie Hara: New light on the Russo-Japanese territorial dispute . In: Japan Forum . tape 8 , 1996, pp. 87-102 , doi : 10.1080 / 09555809608721559 .
  • Jon M. Van Dyke: Legal Issues Related to Sovereignty over Dokdo and Its Maritime Boundary . In: Ocean Development & International Law . tape 38 , 2007, p. 157-224 , doi : 10.1080 / 00908320601071504 .
  • Seokwoo Lee: The Resolution of the Territorial Dispute between Korea and Japan over the Liancourt Rocks . In: Shelagh Furness, Clive Schofield (Eds.): Boundary & Territory Briefing . Volume 3, No. 8 , 2002, ISBN 1-897643-51-9 ( full text [PDF; accessed on March 14, 2017]).
  • Seokwoo Lee: Korea and Japan. The Dokdo / Takeshima problem . In: Kimie Hara (Ed.): The San Francisco System and Its Legacies. Continuation, Transformation and Historical Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific . Routledge, 2015, ISBN 978-1-317-63790-5 , pp. 20–36 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Commons : Liancourt Rocks  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Japanese representation
Korean representation

Individual evidence

  1. ^ East China, Korea, Japan - Economy. In: Diercke World Atlas . Retrieved March 12, 2017 ( ISBN 978-3-14-100800-5 ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Mark Selden: Small Islets, Enduring Conflict: Dokdo, Korea-Japan Colonial Legacy and the United States . In: The Asia-Pacific Journal . tape 9 , no. 2 , April 25, 2011 (English, full text [accessed March 11, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Adolf Stieler's Handatlas , edition from 1891, p. 63 .
  4. ^ Heinrich Pleticha & Hermann Schreiber: The most important explorers and their travels . marixverlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8438-0398-4 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  5. ↑ a b c Information on Takeshima. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, accessed December 14, 2014 .
  6. ↑ a b The problem of the territorial affiliation of Takeshima. Embassy of Japan in Germany, March 2004, accessed December 14, 2014 .
  7. ↑ a b Sailing Directions (Enroute), PUB. 157, Coasts of Korea and China, 2.2 Liancourt Rocks (PDF; 4.04 MB) National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
  8. ↑ Dokdo Residents. In: Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. Retrieved March 12, 2017 (English).
  9. ↑ 第 ４ 回 大谷 九 右衛門 と 村 川 市 兵衛 . In: Web 竹 島 問題 研究所 . Sōmu-ka, Shimane Prefecture, December 25, 2007, accessed August 4, 2016 (Japanese).
  10. ↑ a b 10 points on Takeshima. (PDF; 10.8 MB) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, accessed December 14, 2014 .
  11. ↑ 第 ３ 回 鬱 陵 島 と 竹 島 . In: Web 竹 島 問題 研究所 . Sōmu-ka, Shimane Prefecture, December 3, 2007, accessed August 4, 2016 (Japanese).
  12. ↑ a b Chronological Table of Takeshima (20th Century-). (PDF; 3.1 MB) In: Web 竹 島 問題 研究所 . Sōmu-ka, Shimane Prefecture, accessed August 4, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Kimie Hara: Cold War Frontiers in the Asia-Pacific: Divided Territories in the San Francisco system . Routledge, London / New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-203-96700-3 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  14. ↑ Seokwoo Lee & Jon M. Van Dyke: The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty and Its Relevance to the Sovereignty over Dokdo . In: Chinese Journal of International Law . tape 9 , no. 4 , 2010, p. 741–762 , doi : 10.1093 / chinesejil / jmq030 (English).
  15. ^ A b c d e Min Gyo Koo: Island Disputes and Maritime Regime Building in East Asia. Between a Rock and a Hard Place . Springer Science & Business Media, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4419-6223-2 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  16. ↑ Dean Rusk (US Secretary of State): Letter to the Korean Ambassador , excerpt, July 22, 1953.
  17. ↑ World Reacts Cautiously to Dokdo Row. In: The Chosun Ilbo . March 16, 2005, archived from the original on March 18, 2005 ; accessed on August 4, 2016 .
  18. ^ Claim to Seoul-held islets strains ties. In: The Japan Times. July 15, 2008, accessed July 15, 2008 .
  19. ↑ Isle disputes to make schoolbooks. In: The Japan Times Online. April 4, 2014, accessed May 7, 2015 .
  20. ^ Korea in Textbooks. accessed on January 24, 2009
  21. ↑ Shimane touts 'Takeshima Day'. In: Japan Times. April 17, 2005, archived from the original on August 28, 2005 ; accessed on August 4, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Visiting the island triggers a diplomatic crisis , In Spiegel Online from August 10, 2012
  23. ^ Island dispute in Olympic London , In Asienspiegel of August 12, 2012
  24. ↑ a b c d e Balázs Szalontai: Instrumental Nationalism? The Dokdo Problem Through the Lens of North Korean Propaganda and Diplomacy . In: Journal of Northeast Asian History . tape 10 , no. 2 , 2013, p. 115–157 ( full text [PDF; accessed on March 11, 2017]).
  25. ↑ a b Alexander Bukh: Korean National Identity, Civic Activism and the Dokdo / Takeshima Territorial Dispute . In: Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs . tape 3 , 2016, doi : 10.1177 / 2347797016645459 .
  26. ↑ a b Jinman Cho, HeeMin Kim, Jun Young Choi: The Dokdo / Takeshima Dispute between Korea and Japan: Understanding the Whole Picture . In: Pacific Focus . tape 24 , no. 3 , 2009, p. 372 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1976-5118.2009.01030.x (English).
  27. ↑ Island row hits Japanese condoms. In: BBC . July 17, 2008, accessed March 10, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Visiting Dokdo. In: Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. Retrieved March 12, 2017 (English).
  29. ↑ Choe Sang-hun: A fierce Korean pride in a lonely group of islets. In: The New York Times . August 28, 2008, accessed March 12, 2017 .