Did President Yoon Seok Yeol's government announce that they will hand over Dokdo (Takeshima Island) to Japan? No, that's not true: Dokdo Island remains an integral part of South Korean territory, and there was no evidence of President Yoon's administration announcing the handover of the long-disputed territory to Japan.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published on May 6, 2024. The text in the video read in English (as translated from Korean by Lead Stories staff):
Yoon Seok Yeol's government to give Dokdo to Japan.
This is controversial because there was a proposal to allow Japanese people to come to Dokdo without a passport.
On April 26, Ambassador to Japan Yoon Deok Min held a press conference at the Foreign Ministry building in central Seoul and proposed an idea to simplify immigration procedures between South Korea and Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is considering allowing Koreans to travel back and forth ahead of the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan next year. If this plan is implemented, Japanese citizens can enter the country through the domestic immigration counter without a passport and with an ID card. While the Japanese government is amid a territorial dispute over Dokdo, there are concerns that the dispute could escalate if Japanese people travel to and from Dokdo without a passport. Are you just trying to let the world know that Dokdo is also a Japanese territory where Japanese people can freely enter without a passport? Seriously. How can you come up with such an idea at this time? What are your thoughts on reviewing it again? Please come to your senses.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed May 8 15:40:27 2024 UTC)
Dokdo Island (archived here), otherwise known as Takeshima Island and Liancourt Rocks, has been a disputed territory between Korea and Japan for over 300 years (archived here).
Ambassador to Japan Yoon Deok Min held a press conference (archived here) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul on April 26, 2024. President Yoon's government appointed Ambassador Yoon in June 2022 (archived here), after he served as Director of the National Diplomatic Service (archived here). At the press conference, Ambassador Yoon said, as translated from Korean into English by Lead Stories staff:
Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan, and I think there is a need to upgrade the relationship by never retreating and solidifying it so that the people of both Korea and Japan can feel the benefits.
Since his inauguration, President Yoon has prioritized improving Korea-Japan relations (archived here). In March 2023, President Yoon and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to restart the "shuttle diplomacy" (archived here) to improve strained ties (archived here).
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan (archived here) in 2025, a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed, as a personal opinion, to simplify travel procedures between Korea and Japan, according to local media reports. The individual requested anonymity (archived here) at Ambassador Yoon's press conference to avoid the public opinion backlash over such a sensitive issue.
The senior official's opinion favored eliminating the mutual passport process for Koreans and Japanese citizens to shorten the immigration process. This would entail a similar plan to the Schengen Agreement in Europe (archived here), which guarantees traveling without a visa (archived here) between select European countries. Passport inspection and security checks (archived here) would no longer be required for Koreans and Japanese citizens when traveling between Korea and Japan by plane or ship.
The press conference caused a backlash from the Democratic Party (archived here), which urged President Yoon's administration to reprimand Ambassador Yoon for supporting the idea of simplifying immigration procedures between Japan and Korea. This is largely due to the disputed territory of Dokdo Island, as the only way to travel to the island is by regular ferry service from Ulleungdo (Korean Island) (archived here).
According to a 2019 Chosun Ilbo article (archived here), Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been advising Japanese citizens to refrain from visiting Dokdo because there is concern that going as Japanese citizens submitting their passports would mean recognizing being subject to Korean jurisdiction there. However, according to some comments in the press, if Japanese citizens were allowed to enter and exit Dokdo without a passport, there could be a high possibility (archived here) that this would strengthen Japan's claim that Dokdo is Japan's territory.
