Curator advocates Dokdo sovereignty
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Kim Kyoung-do
By Choi Kyong-ae
Two years ago, Kim Kyoung-do decided to go to Ulleungdo, an island off the east coast of Korea, to work as curator for the Dokdo Museum in the local county office.
“Back in June 2013, my contract to work as a curator for the National Folk Museum of Korea located in the Gyeongbokgung palace was terminated. In the same month, I spotted the job offer in Ulleungdo,” the 32-year-old curator told The Korea Times.
When he studied anthropology at the Graduate School of Yeungnam University, he came to have an interest in preserving regional assets of Ulleungdo and Dokdo and protecting the territorial rights of the latter which is called Takeshima in Japan.
Tension between Japan and Korea over Dokdo has been escalating since 2012 when then-President Lee Myung-bak visited the islets.
Out of 10 Dokdo-related exhibitions in the past two years, Kim picked the one he planned for Koreans and local people in Seattle from Nov. 3-30 last year.
“We brought an old map and documents which showed that Dokdo belongs to Korea as well as pictures of Dokdo for the exhibition. Local Korean-American communities wanted copies to promote their ‘Dokdo is Korean territory’ campaign,” he said.
Dokdo Museum is holding a Dokdo exhibition in Belgium from July through August. It aims to hold similar exhibitions in other European countries and the U.S. in the coming years.
Kim takes pride in playing a part, even a very small part, in protecting Dokdo’s sovereignty.
He now plans to stay in Ulleungdo for the next eight years to continue his “important” job despite inconveniences in his daily lives. The curator now lives with his better half after he got married in April this year.
His wife got a part-time job in a local office of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. As she is expected to give birth in March next year, their baby will have Ulleungdo as its hometown.
He aims to collect as many historical assets, or evidence, as possible during his stay there to help strengthen the case for Dokdo’s sovereignty.
But he acknowledged there are several things which make his life in Dokdo uncomfortable.
“As most industrial products are shipped from the mainland, prices are very high. Residential costs and other living expenses are much higher in Ulleungdo than the main territory,” he said. “Moreover, one third of ships are cancelled a year due to high seas or strong winds.”