An Island By Any Other Name would still be disputed

Diorama in our subway station

Is it DokDo? or TsuShima? or Liancourt Rocks?
Two very tiny islands in between Korea and Japan are the cause of an ongoing dispute between the two countries.
They are simply large rock outcroppings, never inhabited — but national pride and potential mineral or navigation rights make their ownership valuable.
Korea claims the Dok Islands, says they were part of the old Korean kingdoms five hundred years ago and so marked on old maps.
Japan claims the Tsu Islands (the same rocks—Japanese name) because Japan owned Korea in the first part of the 1900s so they designed the navigation maps used since then.
This is a virtual carbon copy of similar disputes about similar rock outcroppings between Japan and China; between Philippines and China; and between Vietnam and China; as well as uninhabited glaciers between India and China. Notice a common thread in these last sets? The recent air-rights claims made by China over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands is more worrisome because those involve big military aircraft, including US Air Force bombers.
I dare say that most Japanese citizens are not very worried about TsuShima; but most every redblooded Korean citizen will mutter with righteous indignation when the DokDo island dispute is mentioned — “of course those islands belong to Korea, anybody can see that!”
Several public places in Seoul have signs or dioramas depicting the disputed rocks, along with explanations about the self-evident truth of their rightful ownership as part of the Land of the Morning Calm.

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Where we are working now

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