정치

Korea publishes protest commentary against Japan that claims Dokdo as its own territory without Japanese translation

입력 2024.10.10 17:08

Lee Yoo-jin

Korea publishes protest commentary against Japan that claims Dokdo as its own territory without Japanese translation

It has been confirmed that Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) posted a protest commentary against Japan, which claimed Dokdo as its own territory, on the official website of the island without the Japanese translation. As the Japanese people, who were the subjects to protest, were not able to see the commentary, some pointed out that the Korean government took the measure after being conscious of its Japanese counterpart.

According to Park Sun-won of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), a member of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, the MOFA published “MOFA Spokesperson’s Commentary on Defense of Japan 2024” in July, but did not post it on the Japanese version of Dokdo’s official website.

The ministry has released government statements on its bulletin board titled, “Basic Position of the Government.” They were usually translated into English and Japanese and posted on the foreign versions of its website. In the case of this commentary, an English translation was posted, but no Japanese translation was uploaded.

The commentary was released shortly after the Japanese government adopted the “Defense of Japan 2024” on July 12. In the white paper, the Japanese government reiterated its claim that Dokdo is Japanese territory, which it has repeated for 20 years. In response, the MOFA criticized the Japanese government in its commentary, using words like “strongly protest,” “immediate withdrawal,” and “resolute response.”

The ministry has been criticized for selectively omitting sensitive commentaries, as other commentaries published earlier were posted on the Japanese version of the Dokdo website without much difference in timing from the government's announcement. The foreign ministry also came under fire in September last year when it was belatedly revealed that it had not posted commentaries critical of the Japanese government on the website of the Korean Embassy in Japan after President Yoon Suk-yeol took office.

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The MOFA posted the Japanese version of the commentary on Dokdo’s official website at around 6 p.m. on October 8, after the Kyunghyang Shinmun began to report. It has been three months since the commentary was published. An official from the MOFA said, "We will publish (the Japanese version) soon," to a reporter who earlier asked about the reason for its omission. After Kyunghyang’s article on the issue was published on the day, the ministry said, “Due to a mistake in uploading on the website, the Japanese translation dated July 12 was not posted, but it has now been posted normally.”

DPK lawmaker Park Sun-won said, “What kind of government cannot even post a Japanese commentary on the official website of Dokdo? What matters is not ’How Japan feels about' but protecting our sovereignty and national interests.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.