A letter to the president of ROK
In my main blog (usually in Japanese), I posted a letter to Roh Moo-hyun, the president of S.Korea, and sent a trackback to his blog. Here's the copy of the letter:
Dear Mr. President,
It is my pleasure to announce, to Your Excellency and to all Your nations as well, that we are about to see Takeshima's Day coming round.
It is natural that each of the two countries has its own point of view over the territorial dispute on Takeshima (what Koreans call "Dokdo"). As you know, Japan has been advocating a peaceful resolution of the issue at the International Court of Justice for decades, while Korea has been defying it. If Korean leaders were really confident of the legitimacy of their claim over the issue, they would have no reason they should avoid discussing.
I hope that Korean people and their government will someday realize that talking at the Hague is the best way, or possibly the only way left, for each of the two countries to keep the bilateral relation peaceful and future-oriented, unless they wish to drive Japanese government into inevitable consideration of having resort to a more drastic measure for breaking through the current situation.
Yours truly,
Suika Dorobo
(See also: Takeshima, Takeshima's Day)
Actually this is not my first letter to Mr. Roh: the first one was an E-mail I sent to him in December 2004 (see this post for its carbon copy), in which I criticized him for his speech at the joint communiqué after the top-level bilateral talk with Japan's PM Koizumi.
In his speech, Mr. Roh repeatedly attempted to justify North Korea's point of view over the rogue nation's abduction of Japanese citizens. It was unpardonable for me, as well as for quite many Japanese people, that he mentioned to an abductee, Yokota Megumi, calling her family "the bereaved", thereby justifying NK official's claim that Megumi is dead since long and all what NK officials could do was to hand over "her ashes" to Japan, which later turned out to be fake.
There was no response from President Roh; I got a new year greeting card from Korean presidential office instead.
posted by Suika Dorobo @ Wednesday, February 08, 2006
3 comments
3 Comments:
Very interesting stuff, Dorobo. I'm across the ocean and to the east of you, and never get to hear about such disputes as this Takeshima's Day. Why is this island in dispute between Japan and North Korea?
Thank you so much for your comment, vendetta. I'm afraid it might have confused you that I wrote about the territorial dispute and NK abduction altogether in a single post: actually the territorial dispute over the islets is mainly going on between Japan and SOUTH Korea, and the abduction issue between Japan and NORTH Korea.
The beginning of the territorial dispute over Takeshima was South Korea's illegal occupation of the islets in 1952, just a couple of weeks before San Francisco Peace Treaty came into effect, as stated in a Korean newspaper: no sooner had the Allied Power rejected South Korea's request for excluding Takeshima from Japan's territory, than South Korean President Lee Seung-man unilaterally declared Korea's sovereignty over the islets and occupied them with military power.
It is incredible that this incident took place during the Korean War: the UN forces were fighting a severe anti-communist battle, while Lee exploited his soldiers for his piratial policy. I'd like you to see this page for detail; anyway it's likely that Korea has been avoiding to take this issue to the Hague because Koreans know their occupation of the islets is illegal.
Suika Dorobo.
You need to study the Dokdo issue in more detail instead of spewing the garbabe from Japan's MOFA.
The Dokdo dispute began in 1906 when Japan told the governor of Ulleungdo Shimane had seized the island.
Do your homework please
The Truth of Dokdo Takeshima Dispute
Hope this helps.
Post a Comment
<< Home