Korea to Build Underwater Park and Wave-Power Station off Dokdo Islets

The Korean government says it will build a seawall in coastal shores around the Dokdo islets and create an underwater park to solidify Korea's control of its easternmost territory.
Seoul's Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs unveiled its Dokdo development project Thursday saying that the construction firm for this project will be finalized by early December.
The project calls for connecting Dokdo's East and West islets with a 200 meter pass and constructing a 210 meter long seawall off the coast of the islets.
An underwater park will span the waters within the seawall making it possible for visitors to see sea creatures from an underwater viewing room which will be built at the end of the seawall.
The seawall will be connected to the existing Dokdo Dock.
Electricity will be generated from a wave-energy power station which will be built beneath the underwater viewing room.
The Korean government is expected to inject roughly 400 million US dollars into the project and aims to start construction in 2013 and complete the entire process by no later than early 2017.
The project is part of Korea's comprehensive strategy to counter Japan's false territorial claims to Dokdo and is likely to draw a strong opposition from Tokyo.

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"Japan would fiercely oppose the project. However, from the perspective of protecting our national territory, we must stand firm no matter how much political noise Japan would make.
We have reached a point where quiet diplomacy will no longer resolve the territorial dispute over Dokdo with Japan.
It is time for us to act decisively to realize and promote Korea's sovereignty over the islets.
In this regard, we must move on with the project with a strong determination".

Korea devised this project in April this year after Japan marked Dokdo as its own territory in middle school textbooks and argued its ownership of the islets in its diplomatic bluebook.
Kim Yeon-ji, Arirang News.