Territorial Disputes in East Asia

One aspect of East Asian politics that I find rather surprising is the fact that there are a number of territorial disputes between the nations of the region.

First of all, there is the territorial dispute between North and South Korea.  These two nations, which are technically at war, disagree on the location of their borders, in particular the maritime border in the West sea, known as the Northern Limit Line.  But on a grander scale, both North Korea and South Korea seek reunification, which can perhaps be understood as claiming sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula.

These disputes, I knew about before going to Korea, though perhaps not in their minutest details.  But I had no idea that there are also territorial disputes between Korea and Japan.  Currently, Japan and Korea are in dispute over an island that Koreans call Dokdo (독도).  From what I gather from news sources, Japan has begun to claim sovereignty over the islands in recent years.  At first glance, this seems silly, as the islands are very small and not very hospitable for humans, but some see economic motives in Japan's claim to the islands.  And this year, to the dismay of Koreans, Japan has begun describing the islands as Japanese territory in a large number of its official school textbooks.  In response to this, the Korean government and Korean teachers have taken the position that Korea's sovereignty over the 독도 islands must be defended.  Therefore, Korea has also begun to emphasize their claim to 독도 in school textbooks.  Sadly, the 독도 question is a divisive one, and it strains the relationship between Korea and Japan.

Interestingly, such disputes are not new in Korea-Japan relations.  Some Koreans claim that the Japanese island of Tsushima, which is sometimes visible from Busan, is Korean territory. 

Furthermore, as I discussed in my previous blog post, there are disputes between Korea and China.  Though the Goguryeo controversy currently seems to be only about the interpretation of the history of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo, discussions that I have had with some Koreans have led me to believe that this matter could devolve into a territorial dispute in the future.

Japan and China are also in dispute over the Senkaku islands, currently controlled by Japan, but claimed by both China and Taiwan.  

And finally, there is a fourth player in the region, namely Russia.  There is a territorial dispute between Russia and Japan, over the Kuril islands, a string of islands stretching from Hokkaido, Japan to the Kamchatka peninsula, in the Russian Federation.  Surprisingly, a recently article suggests that the Russian air force, and to a lesser extent the Chinese air force, have carried out a number of incursions into Japanese airspace during the last few years.

I doubt I would have learned all of this had I not moved to Korea.