Dear BBC,

I am a high school student of Korea . While I read your website , I realized your article is not delivering correct information.

Your website article about Dokdo / Takeshima dispute has addressed this matter as a controvercial issue. but  I should say that this is totally wrong.  Dokdo is Korean Territory.

The Japanese government, despite historical records proving Korean sovereignty over Dokdo Island, keeps falsely claiming that the island is part of Japan. There is not a speck of evidence proving that Dokdo belongs to Korea. The attitude of Japanese Government, however, is simply an attempt at historical deception.

An incident in 1693 involving the Korean fisherman An Yong-bok is a major historical case proving the territorial right of Korea, then called Joseon, to Dokdo Island. At the time, the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan acknowledged Dokdo and Ulleungdo islands as Joseon territory after receiving a report from the Tokugawa Domain, where An stayed, saying, "Neither Ulleungdo nor Dokdo is domain territory." The shogunate prohibited passage to the two islands and informed the Joseon court of its ban. This incident thus confirms that both Ulleungdo and Dokdo are Korean territory under international law.

Attention is also need to the Order of Dajoukan, or Daijo-kan (太政官指令), of 1877, a historical document in which the Japanese government recorded Dokdo as Korean territory. After Shimane Prefecture asked if it should include Dokdo and Ulleungdo in the prefecture's map, the Dajokan (Grand State Council), the highest-ranking public organization at the time, concluded the matter by saying, "Dokdo and Ulleungdo are Korean territory and both regions have nothing to do with Japan." The council later officially informed the Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs of this decision. This means that the order was an official document quoting the Japanese government's formal position that the two islands were not Japanese territory

Dokdo is Korean territory that has never been uninhabited. For this reason, Japan's territorial claim to the island is null and void because the doctrine of terra nullius, which grants the occupier of land belonging to no one ownership of the latter, does not apply to Dokdo. The Meiji government’s decision to initially call Dokdo Korean territory and then later claim it as Japanese territory violates the principle of no deliberation of the same measure twice in the same legislative session. This is also a violation of the Meiji constitution and international law.

The Japanese government alleged that Korea was "illegally securing Takeshima" in a defense white paper, and the National Museum of Territory & Sovereignty was reopened in Tokyo earlier in January. This is stance is wrong. Japan withdrew its territorial claim to Dokdo in the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty on Basic Relations and a bilateral fisheries agreement, both of which were concluded in June 1965; Tokyo also agreed to tolerate Korean sovereignty over the island. Though Japan has refused to disclose related historical documents citing its Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, it cannot hide the truth.

Therefore, I humbly ask you that you deliver the truth of Dokdo accordingly to your readers worldwide.

Thank you for reading/