It has been confirmed for the first time that declassified U.S. military documents from the 1948 Dokdo bombing incident show the U.S. military recognized Dokdo as Korean territory.

The Northeast Asian History Foundation announced that it has newly discovered previously undisclosed U.S. government records regarding Dokdo, including a report on the 1948 Dokdo bombing incident written by the Far East Air Forces (FEAF) in June 1948.

Notably, the report on the Dokdo bombing incident, dated June 24, 1948, states, "It was clearly established on September 8, 1947, that Liancourt Rocks, or Dokdo, is a part of Korea."

Liancourt Rocks is a name used to refer to Dokdo.

The report explicitly identified Dokdo as "a part of Korea" while investigating the incident on June 8 of the same year, in which 14 fishermen were killed and many others injured during a U.S. Air Force practice bombing run.

These materials consist of 222 pages of documents collected by Jeon Gap-saeng, a research professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies at Sungkonghoe University, from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, and were recently donated to the Northeast Asian History Foundation.

The report also includes a provision stating that if a practice bombing range is to be used, the Commander of U.S. Army Forces in Korea must be notified 15 days in advance.

This is interpreted as a requirement to notify the relevant Korean authorities in advance when conducting practice bombings, as Dokdo was considered "Korean territory."

The Northeast Asian History Foundation assessed that since there are not many primary sources demonstrating Korea's sovereignty over Dokdo between 1945 and 1948, immediately after liberation, these materials will serve as important evidence confirming the U.S. perception of Dokdo at the time and Korea's sovereignty over the island.

Newly identified materials related to research on Ulleungdo and Dokdo were also revealed.

It is widely known that when Japan illegally incorporated Dokdo into its territory in 1905, the then-county magistrate Shim Heung-taek reported the fact to Lee Myeong-rae, the acting governor of Gangwon-do; the document containing that report has now been discovered for the first time.

The materials donated by Professor Jeon are scheduled to be made public through future special exhibitions.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Kim Na-on | Design by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News