11/10/18 17:42:45.27 +CvJNV7e0
For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 30, 2008 The White House
MR. WILDER:Let me be very clear that our policy on this territorial dispute has been firm and consistent since 1952,・・・・・
the report by Ambassador Van Fleet on his visit to the ROK in 1954 (made public in 1986)
The United States Government has consistently taken the position that the unilateral proclamation of sovereignty over the seas
is illegal and that the fisheries dispute between Japan and Korea should be settled on the basis of a fisheries conservation agreement
that would protect the interests of both countries.
When the Treaty of Peace with Japan was being drafted, the Republic of Korea asserted its claims to Dokto but the United States
concluded that they remained under Japanese sovereignty and the Island was not included among the Islands that Japan released from its ownership under the Peace Treaty.
Our position has been that the dispute might properly be referred to the International Court of Justice
and this suggestion has been informally conveyed to the Republic of Korea.
The Rusk documents (Rusk-Yang correspondence) are the official diplomatic correspondence,
Dean Rusk, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs,
As regards the island of Dokdo, otherwise known as Takeshima or Liancourt Rocks,
this normally uninhabited rock formation was according to our information never treated as part of Korea and,
since about 1905, has been under the jurisdiction of the Oki Islands Branch Office of Shimane Prefecture of Japan.
The island does not appear ever before to have been claimed by Korea.