Korea Vows to Stop Japanese Incursion Near Dokdo What Force Will Counter Japan's Designs on Dokdo? Japanese Provocations Over Dokdo Intensify Tensions Run High Over Japan’s Dokdo Research Trip Calls to Abandon Silent Treatment of Japan Grow Louder Two Koreas May Discuss Japan’s Dokdo Incursion Japanese Nomenclature Encroaches on Korean Waters Dokdo Bound Research Vessel Departs Tokyo Harbor A Call to Diplomatic Arms Mystery Japanese Ships Strike Out Japan Calls Off Dogs in Dokdo Dispute Japanese Minister’s Visit Over Dokdo Crisis Inconclusive Ministry of Education Steps Up Dokdo Education Korea-Japan Compromise Ends Dokdo Standoff Korea ‘Will Push Ahead With Naming Dokdo Seafloor’ Korea to Explain Dokdo Problem to Int’l Community President Roh Draws Dokdo Map for Kofi Annan Korea Resumes Project to Name Seabed Near Dokdo Much Fighting Talks and a Disappointing Result

Already in March last year, the president warned of a “diplomatic war” with Japan over the issue, saying the government would not retreat but persist until Japan’s designs on the islets have been “uprooted.”

That was then, this is now, and the two speeches were practically identical. If the president repeated the same remarks, it was presumably because Japan's attitude remains stubbornly un-uprooted. Since the first speech, the Japanese Education Ministry has issued a directive that high school textbooks must clearly identify Dokdo as Japanese territory, and Tokyo tried to send ships to conduct a hydrographic survey in waters near the islets, a plan that could only be averted when Korea promised to hold off registering Korean place names for the seafloor there.

Commenting on the latest presidential address, a Japanese government official said it was another message intended to boost Roh’s approval ratings at home, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said something about preferring “future-oriented thinking.” The president of a country virtually declares war against a neighbor, and the neighbor shrugs it off as if nothing much had happened.

If we are to correct Japan's attitude, as the president promised, we have to mobilize all our diplomatic resources, both tangible and intangible. The aim of that diplomacy is to make our counterpart do what we want. But the economic gap between us and Japan has been getting wider in recent years, and our alliance with the U.S. that persuaded Japan to back off when similar disputes flared up in the past is no longer much use since this administration came in power. Rhetoric not backed by force may lull the population at home, but it is nothing but hot air abroad.

Still, if we confronted Japan based on clear principles and with persistence, even with scarce diplomatic resources at our disposal, we could halt its provocations. But the president, shortly after his inauguration, expressed his fondness of Koizumi, saying, "Prime Minister Koizumi and I have a lot in common. The more popular he is, the better I feel.” At a summit with Koizumi in July 2004, he vowed, "No past history issue will be raised during my tenure." Of course he made these remarks relying on the goodwill of his counterpart, without knowing his real intent. But when he now threatens to wage diplomatic war against Japan, the international community is nonetheless bound to regard Korea as a country that lacks principle and consistency.

The president and government should ponder why his address has not met with much respect in Japan even if there is nothing to fault in the remarks themselves.