U-Ri-Ttang! U-Ri-Ttang! U-Ri-Ttang!

Open this one like a fine wine.

China said Thursday it cannot recognize South Korea’s sovereignty over Ieo Island, a remote reef-islet in the waters between the Asian neighbors, after China announced it had conducted aerial surveillance on the islet last year.

“Suyan Rock is a reef located below the waters in the northern part of the East China Sea, and we have never determined its ownership with South Korea,” said Qin Gang, a spokesman at Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, during a press conference. Suyan Rock is the Chinese name for Ieo Island (pronounced yee-o), on which South Korea has operated maritime observation facilities since 2001.

“Suyan Rock is where each country’s EEZs (economic exclusive zones) overlap,” Qin said, adding that South Korean and Chinese officials met twice but failed to agree on a sea border near the islet.

The Koreans did not take this with quiet whimpers:

Seoul immediately refuted Beijing’s claim, saying the South Korean government has sovereign rights over Ieo Island as it is part of South Korea’s territorial waters.

“Basically, it is not a territorial dispute, but a problem caused by the absence of a firm exclusive economic zone between the two countries,” a Seoul government official said.

“Clearly, Ieo Island is part of South Korea’s sovereign rights. Thus it is our lawful right to build and operate a maritime scientific base upon it.”

If you’re a new reader and don’t know what the fuss over Tokdo is about, this discussion will not have the exquisite flavor that it will for seasoned Korea-watchers. It would be impossible to overstate Korea’s hysterical paroxysm over Tokdo, in all defiance of Tokdo’s actual value, because of what the dispute is really a surrogate for. Now, consider this:

* Ieo Island could conceivably have commercial value, since it appears to lie on the same geological feature as another disputed reef under which Japan and China both suspect there may be natural gas or oil.

* About that reef: it’s been a matter of real contention between Japan and China, with China claiming that its exclusive economic zone extends to the reef’s east, and Japan claiming that it ends further west. Consider the geography for an instant and it’s clearly in Korea’s interests to move that boundary west, too, meaning that it’s in Korea’s interests to take Japan’s side against China….

Incidentally, I pored through map after map and found no trace of Ieo Island or the nearby reefs. Even maps that tell you where Tokdo is don’t show Ieo. I have the coordinates, so I can put up a map when I get home, where I have Google Earth. [Update: got it.]

Meanwhile, as brave netizens stood watch over Tokdo, a dastardly Chinese sneak attack seems to have claimed “Suyan Rock” on Wikipedia, and (so it is said) put a ChiCommie Google-Earth placemark there! The humanity! Nothing less than a full VANK mobilization is called for, and the bee-man must be summoned back from obscurity. [Update: The battle is joined! VANK reclaims another forgotten rockpile for the fatherland!]

One way to look at this would be this: thin is the new rich, Koreans are the new Jews, and Ieo is the new Tokdo. Perhaps one day, China could even be the new Japan:

Seoul’s ties with Beijing recently soured after a state-run academic institute in China disclosed research papers arguing that ancient Korean kingdoms [see heavily edited and vandalized Wikipedia pages on Balhae and Koguryo] were its vassal governments. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun expressed regret over the papers, but China repeated that they are only academic works.

Another way would be to wonder just how many fights you get dragged into if you ally yourself with contemporary South Korea. I’m not passing judgment on the merits of the competing claims here, I just hope that Korea will show more maturity about this dispute than it did in the case of Tokdo. To expect Koreans to contrast mature diplomacy applied to China with state-sanctioned demagoguery over Tokdo would ask too much. And if all else fails, pray that the Kuriles, the Aleutians, and Cyprus aren’t next.