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| Dokdo Islets / Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
A YouTube video criticizing a ferry operator's ban on Japanese passengers to Dokdo Islets has caused a stir in Korea's online community this week.
In the video, a young Korean man and a Japanese woman ― a couple who run the One's Film YouTube channel ― walk viewers through how they were barred recently from their trip to Ulleung Island, a pre-Dokdo stopover.
According to the video, the ferry employees at Gangneung Port in Gangwon Province refused the ride citing "safety reasons." The ferry operator said putting Korean and Japanese passengers on the same ship headed for the islets, a longtime symbol of geopolitical tension between the two countries, could lead to heated arguments or scuffles out at sea.
SSPV JD, the ferry company that rejected the couple, says it has limited Japanese passengers to Dokdo since 2011, when a group of conservative Japanese lawmakers asserting Japan's territorial claim over the islets tried to visit Ulleung Island to see them. Last month, after Japan removed Korea from its "whitelist" of favored trading partners, the ferry operator banned Japanese nationals from visiting the stopover Ulleung Island as well.
"It's not a complete ban. Japanese people who have obtained Korean citizenship or are married Koreans can still take the ferry. Japanese nationals who also prove their trip to Dokdo is intended to recognize Korea's sovereignty over the islets can also get an exemption through our office by prior arrangement," Im Jong-jeong, a spokesman at SSPV JD, told The Korea Times. "We want to avoid any sort of conflict on a confined ship at sea."
The ferry operator says it can't predict or control what might happen if Korean and Japanese passengers get into arguments onboard, or worse if a far-right Japanese national unfurls an Imperial Japanese flag.
Other ferry operators also limit the travel of Japanese nationals to Dokdo, but usually not Ulleung Island.
The video ended with the Korean boyfriend saying he did not want his girlfriend to face discrimination in Korea.
The couple's video, however, did not receive much sympathy from viewers. The comments section for the video was flooded with posts attacking the couple for not accepting the ban.
The video has since been deleted from the channel and the couple did not respond to an email inquiry for comment.
Meanwhile, another YouTuber's video received over 900 likes after claiming the couple "have nothing to feel wronged about" since they failed to look into restrictions for Japanese nationals in advance.
But a few spoke up for the couple in the comments section on the second video.
"Why are you distorting this small event for viewers? It's not like the couple wanted to go to Ulleung Island to shout Long Live the Japanese Emperor," one wrote.
Whether the ferry operator's private ban on Japanese tourists ― which has no legal grounds ― is necessary is another question. Some suggest that allowing Japanese nationals to enter the islets while being subject to Korean law might be a more active assertion of Seoul's jurisdiction over the islets.
