Korea mulls rebuttal to Newsweek Japan`s article on Dokdo

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry is considering sending an official rebuttal letter to Newsweek magazine over an article siding with Japan on the territorial dispute over Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-yeong said Thursday, “The Foreign Ministry is very concerned that the Newsweek article was distorted and written based on a seriously biased point of view,” adding, “The ministry will refute the article in an appropriate way.”

The government plans to send its rebuttal through an official letter and ask for a correction to misleading information and expressions.

The magazine delivered the opinion of Japanese rightists with no counterbalance in the article “Why Japan and South Korea Are Feuding Over a Cluster of Rocks.” Takashi Yokota, Newsweek`s Tokyo correspondent and editor of the magazine`s Japanese edition, wrote that Dokdo has been Japanese territory since 1905 but was illegally taken by Korea in 1952. He also expressed worry over Korea behaving irrationally or causing a serious problem because of the dispute.

In Newsweek`s Japanese edition, he criticized Korea throughout the article with phrases such as “Korea is like a reckless driver” and “The Korean way of thinking is hard to understand.”

The magazine`s Korean edition said the article lacked fairness and accuracy and decided not to publish it in Korea.