U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee chairman: `Dokdo is proper name`

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), one of the representative pro-Korea American politicians, said on the issue of name of Dokdo on Saturday. Royce, who won the mid-term election in November, will continue to serve as the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for two years during the 114th Congress. Dokdo issue must be viewed from historical perspective… the proper name is Dokdo, he said in an interview with Korean media outlet Yonhap News at Capitol Hill in Washington.

This assertion from an influential American politician confirms that Korea has the territorial sovereignty of Dokdo and takes sides of the Korean government in the controversy between Dokdo and Japanese Takashima. The U.S. government keeps a practice to refer Dokdo as "Liancourt Rocks" following the guidelines of the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Some organizations lobbied by Japan use Dokdo and Takeshima at the same time.

“In 2008, when it was known to the public that the BGN made a decision to change the name of Dokdo in American maps due to lobby of Japan, I came to know historical facts about Japan’s colonial rules over Korea and Dokdo. We have to understand history and what abuses occurred,” said Rep. Royce. The BGN once changed the territorial status of Dokdo from a Korean territory to an "undesignated sovereignty" in July 2008, and restored to the original state by direction of President George W. Bush.

Regarding Japan’s claim that the Japanese military didn’t force the so-called comfort women, sex slaves for Japanese army during the World War II, Royce criticized that many historical records obviously show that comfort women were mobilized forcibly by the Japanese military and they lived as sex slaves, adding that there is no excuse for Japan. Royce strongly criticized Japan for denial of its past wrongdoings during the interview with Dong-A Ilbo this January.