[KS] Library of Congress Korean Controversy

[Young-Key Kim-Renaud]

Yes, Scott, your points are well taken. I, too, believe that Koreans are doing it to themselves, and I have been expressing my views to the journalists, hoping they would help the Koreans instead of exciting them to their detriment. As Gari says, Koreans only need to stay put until the international attention goes in the right direction. I am even glad you wrote what you wrote, because you said what quite a few others may have also thought but not dared to enunciate. Your assertions and rhetorical questions have also contributed to the debate, as people had a chance to rebut your and others' similar assumptions and preoccupation. I hope and trust in the process many members of our LIST have learned something new on the issue--I certainly have.

As a postscript, just one more clarification, which hopefully will put a stop to your insistence that Hana Kim was lobbying for the Korean government, whatever her citizenship may be. Her letter of July 14, 2008, addressed to Dr. Barbara Tillett, Chief of CPSO, clearly states that she was writing "On behalf of the committee [on Korean Materials under the auspices of the Council on East Asian Libraries of the Association for Asian Studies] members and the Korean Studies librarians in North America, Australia, New Zealand and France." 

Best regards,
YK

----- Original Message -----
From: "J.Scott Burgeson" <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, July 25, 2008 3:46 pm
Subject: Re: [KS] Library of Congress Korean Controversy
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws

> 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