[KS] Library of Congress Korean Controversy

[J.Scott Burgeson]

Young-Key, I am presently not getting emails from the List, so I will respond to your most recent post very briefly and without quoting it. I am not at all unsympathetic to the Korean side of the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute, and in the past have come down on the Korean side in print. If my questions seemed provocative, I was merely trying to look at the issue from the Japanese perspective, or even more accurately from a third-party perspective, in order to articulate what sort of obstacles need to be overcome or resolved. I am more than willing to be persuaded with devastating force on Korea's historical and legal claims to sovereignty over Dokdo. But I have not yet been persuaded thus by the Korean side, and it is very difficult for me as a layman to look at all the different Web sites and articles and books devoted to the Dokdo-Takeshima issue and know who is really a trustworthy and legitimate scholar or not.

I think the Korean side would benefit a lot if an internationally respected scholar could simply state the case in Korea's favor in succinct and clear form -- and without recourse to emotionalism or mere assertions, as often seems to be the case. Like most people, I'm not a geographer and don't have several weeks to set aside studying all the different maps and arguments and whatnot in order to come to my own final conclusion, and even then I doubt I'd feel confident in my ability to do so. All I can say is that Japan does have claims of its own in this matter, and simply ignoring them is not going to make them go away. It may be provocative to say so, but I think it's only fair.

--Scott Bug