The Korea Times and the Northeast Asia History Foundation are proud to announce the 12 winners of the 2011 Dokdo Essay Contest, in which they explored Korea’s and Japan’s claims to the Dokdo islets.

Felix Filnkoessl, a student in Salzburg, Austria, won the Gold Prize. He will receive 1.5 million won in prize money and a plaque.

Hannah Dowe Standring, a history student at Edinburgh University, Scotland, and Park Hyun-ju, a third-year law student at Yonsei University who is currently studying at Shandong University in China as an exchange student, won the Silver Prizes. Each of them will receive 500,000 won in prize money and a plaque.

Three people were selected as Bronze Prize winners. They are Kevin Conroy, a former senior analyst with SCL-Defense who is currently working for Janusian Terrorism-Tracker; Min Kyung-min, who works in administrative affairs at Kumyang Electric Co.; and Peter Talbot, a student at Pepperdine University in California. They will be each given 300,000 won in prize money and a plaque.

Six notable entries were selected as runners-up. They are B. Prabu, a native of India who is currently doing a Ph.D. at the University of Incheon, South Korea; John Paul De Guzman, a Filipino student doing a master’s degree in Taiwan; M.Abu Taher, an assistant professor of Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh; Tomasz Wierzbowski, a Polish master’s degree student in political science and diplomacy at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul; Patrick Jolly, who teaches EFL in South Korea; and Daniele Pestilli, an operator of an online project, the East Asia Gazette. Each of them will be given culture goods coupons worth 50,000 won.

All winning essays will be published in The Korea Times and in a booklet. The winners were chosen from nearly 100 applicants from all parts of the world.