A special lecture by Chair Professor Shin Yong-ha of Ewha Academy for Advanced Studies was held under the title of “To Whom Does Dokdo Belong?” on September 11 at the LG Convention Hall located in the International Education Building. The lecture was held at the request of the eighth student council of the Division of International Studies (DIS) of Scranton College (Active 8) to the Professor directly. It was the first lecture to be held by the voluntarily request from a student council of a college.

 

Active 8 President Chung Seung-yeon (International Studies, 3) said that she thought it would be beneficial for students to know about the issue in an academic way. “Since the Dokdo dispute is an international hot potato, I thought students from DIS should know how to adamantly defend the idea that Dokdo is Korean territory based on both historical and legal evidences,” said Chung.

 

Professor Shin is currently the President of the Dokdo Institute, which was established in 1996 with the intent of conducting an objective research aimed at verifying that Dokdo is a Korean territory and also to aid the government in implementing policies based on full sovereignty over Dokdo.

 

Professor Shin argued that Dokdo is undeniably ’s territory based on historical, legal, and geographical perspectives – which is noted as a “universal approach” by Shin.

 

Although the issue continues to be controversial, the overall frame of the dispute summarized by Professor Shin was simple and clear – that definitely has sovereignty over the islets untry and the claims of are artificially created and used for lobbying purposes. Historical data from both and say that Dokdo has been considered a territory of Korea. In the Korean text Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) shows such fact and in the document of Daejungkwan, the highest government organization in Japan of Meiji period, states it firmly with a map indicating that the island is ’s. According to Shin, in regards to international law, it is a self-evident fact that Dokdo is a Korean territory, as has been recognized by the international community as a whole. Professor Shin referenced two primary documents; SCAPIN NO. 677 of 1945, a treaty of the allied powers after the Second World War, and also San Francisco Treaty, a peace treaty recognizing Japanese independence. In both of these treaties, Dokdo is analytically noted as a territory that belongs to not to . Also, according to a geographical perspective, Dokdo is said to belong to since the majority of geographic scholars recognize that Dokdo is an annex of Ulleungdo, a Korean island, and not of Oki Island, which is Japanese.

 

After the lecture, Chung remarked that it was a great opportunity for students to know about specific reasons that verifying Dokdo as a Korean territory. “Although it is an inevitable fact that Dokdo is ’s, we have merely heard that fact for so long without knowing deeply why we can claim so,” Chung said. “Thus, we are grateful to Professor Shin for delivering a lecture and providing us with objective information,” said Chung.

 

One student, while she was grateful for the lecture, was also at the same time worried whether the passion to secure ’s sovereignty over Dokdo would be a short-lived effort. “Even though this is a very important issue, since not a lot of Ewha students participated, I felt distressed,” said Lee Yoo-jin (Elementary Education, 4). “I am worried about whether the Dokdo issue will be like a boiling pot which soon gets cool. I hope this contentious issue receives continuous attention both from scholars and the government,” said Jung.

 

But at least Professor Shin said he was pleased to see the students assiduously listening to the lecture and even asking questions. “I hope students learn that Dokdo is Korean territory and deliver their knowledge out to the world by using digital communication methods, like the Internet,” Shin said.

 

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