Dokdo/Takeshima is a territory of South Korea
In the late seventeenth century, Japanese and Korean fishermen clashed over abalone fishing grounds around the island of Ulleungdo (then called Takeshima in Japan). This prompted the Japanese and Korean governments to enter into negotiations over fishing rights on the island; in the end, the Tokugawa shogunate banned Japanese fishermen from visiting Ulleungdo. The South Korean government today points to this resolution as confirming that Takeshima/Dokdo, too, is Korean territory. But this assertion needs close examination. Complicating this issue are records--preserved both in Japan and Korea--showing that a fisherman named An Yong-bok, who was captured and brought to Japan in the clash, returned to Japan three years later and stated that Matsushima (an old Japanese name for Takeshima/Dokdo) was the Korean "Jasando." What implications An's statement has for the present-day Takeshima dispute will also be examined. [...] One other basis for the claim in the South Korean government pamphlet that "Korea's territorial sovereignty over Ulleungdo and its ancillary island, Dokdo, was confirmed through the diplomatic negotiations between the Korean and Japanese governments" is the notion that Takeshima/Dokdo forms part of Ulleungdo. If Ulleungdo belongs to Korea, the argument goes, then so must Takeshima/Dokdo. The South Korean government once insisted that Takeshima/Dokdo was recognized as Korean territory by Article 2(a) of the San Francisco Peace Treaty (1951), in which Japan "renounces all right, title and claim to Korea, including Dagelet (Ulleungdo), etc." because Takeshima/Dokdo was an dependent island of Ulleungdo.22 An examination of this ancillary island claim follows.