Park named head of Dokdo institute

Park Hyun-jin, chair of the Conservation Committee of the International Whaling Commission, was named head of the Dokdo Research Institute at the Northeast Asian History Foundation last Friday.

Park, who received a Ph.D in international law at University College London, has put out a series of research papers about the territorial disputes surrounding Dokdo, and is a co-author of "Insight into Dokdo," a collection of articles on the Dokdo issue, which were published in The Korea Herald last year.

"There are several private research centers devoted to the Dokdo issue, and I will try to help the Dokdo Research Institute play a role as networking coordinator for the different institutes, offering some guidelines if necessary," Park said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Another agenda he will focus on is strengthening the research center`s status overseas in a bid to help foreigners understand the underlying issues of Dokdo, a set of islets that continues to spark arguments with Japan. "We have plenty of Dokdo-related materials written in Korean, but we are yet to produce the same texts in English and other major foreign languages," Park said.

"To offer better access to the Dokdo issues, some of the key papers or books on Dokdo will be translated for foreign researchers in order to raise awareness about Korea`s territorial right to Dokdo," he said.

Park is set to serve as the chief of the research center for the next three years. He worked as a reporter for The Korea Herald between 1982 and 1987.

(insight@heraldm.com)