June 26, 2026

The annual East Sea Territory Protection Exercise wrapped up yesterday around the disputed Dokdo Islands amid heightened tensions with the new ‘Imperial’ Japanese government. Despite referring to Japan’s imperial revival as a ‘vile mockery of a period in which the Japanese government inflicted great cruelty on its neighbours’, President Lee is insistent that this exercise is no different than other years. “Tokyo can embarrass itself all it wants,” he stated, “we will continue to exercise our sovereignty over these islands like any other sane and rational member of the international community.”

The exercise was jointly conducted by members of the Navy, Coast Guard, Airforce and Marines, running numerous interoperability drills including search and rescue, maritime surveillance and a simulated assault on the Dokdo Islands by a Marine detachment. Although Lee claimed this was a routine set of drills, its conclusion revealed far more tension among policymakers at the Blue House than they let slip. Following three days of successful drills, the 25-man police detachment on the islands boarded a chinook headed for land, instead replaced by a 30-man Marine contingent. Blue House and Military officials were unavailable for comment on this development. Whether or not this was a routine security upgrade or a calculated escalation has been hotly debated, but regardless, it is one small flame in an ever-growing fire as tensions mount between Tokyo and its neighbours.