ROK requested an amendment of the Draft
Developments in the ROK
July 19, 1951
The ROK’s requests to the US to modify the revised Joint US-UK draft
Request(1) Include Takeshima as part of Korean territory
The ROK requested that the US include Takeshima (“Dokdo” in the ROK’s letter) in the islands that Japan would renounce.
Request(2) Maintain the MacArthur Line
The ROK requested that the US maintain the so-called MacArthur Line (i.e., the area authorized for Japan’s fishing and whaling under the occupation) even after the Peace Treaty entered into force.
Letter to the US Secretary of State, Dean G. Acheson
Letter dated July 19, 1951, conveying the requests of the ROK on the draft of the Peace Treaty.
Excerpt
Modification of Article 2 (a)
confirms that it renounced on August 9, 1945, all right, title and claims to Korea and the islands which were part of Korea prior to its anexation by Japan, including the islands Quelpart, Port Hamilton, Dagelet, Dokdo and Parando
Insertion at the end of Article 9 (of the Fisheries Agreement)
Pending the conclusion of such agreements existing realities such as the MacArthur Line will remain in effect
July 19, 1951 (Showa 26)
[Repository] The US National Archives and Records Administration
Developments in the US
August 10, 1951
The US rejects the ROK’s requests (the so-called Rusk Letter)
Answer(1) Takeshima was never
a part of Korea
The US rejected the ROK’s request by stating that Takeshima 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.”
Answer(2) The Treaty provisions
governing fishing in high seas
cannot be included.
The US rejected the ROK’s request by stating that “any attempt to include in the treaty provisions governing fishing in high seas areas would indefinitely delay the treaty’s conclusion,” and “…the so-called MacArthur line will stand until the treaty comes into force, and …Korea …will have the opportunity of negotiating a fishing agreement with Japan prior to that date.”
Response from the US (the so-called Rusk Letter)
August 10, 1951 (Showa 26)
[Repository] The US National Archives and Records Administration
Letter dated August 10, 1951, in response to the ROK’s requests on the Peace Treaty (letters dated July 19 and August 2, 1951). The US clearly rejected the ROK’s recognition in the letter by stating that Takeshima was “never treated as part of Korea…The island does not appear ever before to have been claimed by Korea.”
Excerpt
...As regards the island of Dokto, 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. ...
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