Syngman Rhee line

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The Syngman Rhee line (Hangul: 이승만 라인) refers to a boundary line established by South Korean President Syngman Rhee in his "Peace Line"(평화선) declaration of January 18, 1952, marking Dokdo as Korean territory.

The purpose of the line was to protect marine resources around the Sea of Japan, therefore it banned any fishing boat except for Korean from fishing around the area, but the real purpose was to insist South Korea had the owning right of Dokdo and Tsushima island.

The fishing boats, which were mostly Japanese, that violated the boundary line were seized by South Korea, moreover, such ships were often gunned by South Korea. Such a situation by a one-sided act of South Korea was assumed to be measures to disregard the custom on International Law, so Japanese Government protested strongly, however, the abolition of the line had to wait even for the approval of the Japan-Korea Fishery Agreement in 1965. Until reaching to the agreement, 3929 of Japanese people were arrested, 328 of Japanese ships were seized, and 44 of Japanese people were killed by South Korea.

Japanese Government released 472 Korean people in Japan who had been imprisoned as important criminals from prisons in exchange for the restoration of Japanese detainees according to the demand of the South Korea Government, and Japanese Government granted the special permission of residence to the prisoners.

Contents

1 Background
2 The road to solve the hard problem
3 History
4 See also

Background

It was refused by the United States though South Korea was hoping to participate in the peace treaty between victorious countries and Japan as a victorious country of World War II, because the United States knew that the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910 had been lawfully done, and thought that South Korea could not be admitted to participate in victorious countries. In 1951, South Korea submitted to the United States the request that they wanted the United States to add Dokdo(Takeshima) to renounced territory of Japan, but the United States denied it in the Rusk documents. Namely, it was decided in the peace treaty between victorious countries and Japan that Dokdo(Takeshima) was removed from the list of the region that Japan would return to Korea.

Syngman Rhee thought that the situation that the South Korea's owning right of Dokdo(Takeshima) would be denied would obviously make his political power endangered. Thus, based on the opinion that Dokdo(Takeshima) belongs to South Korea, he suddenly took a forced action. In other words, it was the establishment of the Riuketamawa evening line. It happened just before concluding the peace treaty between Japan and Korea country that fixed their area on April 28, 1952.

Japan had fished in the waters adjacent to the Korean Peninsula since before World War II. Thus, Rhee said, "The main purpose of the declaration is, to avoid conflicts over fishing activities." After the declaration, from 1952 until 1965, five fishermen were shot to death,3,929 Japanese fishermen and 328 fishing boats were detained in South Korea. They were released in 1965, under exchange condition that Japan release 472 prisoners from South and North Korea. The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea was concluded.

The road to solve the hard problem

The long tract of years was required for the problem solving. The followings are causes that were an obstacle to its settlement

There was no formal diplomatic relation between Japan and South Korea.
The normalization talks between Japan and South Korea became complicated due to the compensation claim, and was not advanced at all.
The United States took the middle ground and did not intervene it, because of the opinion that the problem was bilateral issue.

Park Chung Hee, following president, thought unification of South and North Korea into a country under a single authority that was South Korean nation's earnest wish would be expedited by industrializing the country and making the country abundant. for that purpose, the capital and the technology were needed. However, South Korea did not have a financial confidence power to borrow money. Therefore, he marked Japan down as a target, and hurried up to the conclusion of the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. For these reasons, he shelved the dispute of the owning right of Dokdo and Takeshima, concluded the Fishery Agreement at once, and abolished the Syngman Rhee line.

History

September 2, 1945 Japanese Government accepted the Potsdam Declaration.
January 29, 1946 Governmental and Administrative Separation of Certain Outlying Areas from Japan. SCAPIN#677''(Supreme Command for Allied Powers Instruction Note　No.677)
June 22, 1946 Area Authorized for Japanese Fishing and Whaling. SCAPIN#1033(MacArthur line)
August 13, 1948 Republic of Korea was founded. Syngman Rhee was sworn-in as first president of South Korea.
August 10, 1951 U.S.Government official stance that "the MacArthur line isn't effective continuously", it had been shown by the Rusk documents.
January 18, 1952 South Korea Government declares the Syngman Rhee line.
April 28, 1952 Treaty of Peace with Japan became effective.
January 12, 1953 South Korea Government ordered to seize a Japanese fisher-boat that go into the Syngman Rhee Line, deeply.
1965 Japan-Korea Fishery Agreement was concluded. Syngman Rhee line was repealed.

Syngman Rhee line

Background

The road to solve the hard problem

History

See also