A short while later, yet another complaint was sent to the king regarding the illegal logging by the Japanese on Ulleungdo. It reads as follows; On the 10th of July an official from the Military Department says to the King..
"With regard to Leekyuwon's Ulleungdo report, your highness ordered that we take care of it. We already sent an offical letter calling on Japan to ban their people from invading the island for logging. However when the inspector went down there this time to check there were still Japanese people doing the same thing as before. This makes it necessary for us to write a document emphasizing the contents of the old letter to stop these illegal activities for good. May I suggest a Daejaehak (offical title) for this task?" To this, the King agreed...."
Here, we can see that Japan's once hard-line policy toward Japanese trespassers has softened almost to the point of indifference. As the document states the Chosun Government had already lodged official complaints with the Japanese Foreign Ministry to no avail. As it was in other parts of Asia at this time, the Japanese had begun to instigate a policy of civilian invasion in neighbouring countries and had turned a blind eye to squatters or illegal residents.
In July of 1898 Ulleungdo Chief Pae went to Japan and demand the police authorities of Shimane and Tottori Prefecture control Japan acts of violence and also brought charges of illegal tree felling and theft against several Japanese of the Matsue District Court. This became a diplomatic issue between the Korean and Japanese governments.
Below is a photo from Ulleungdo Island in the year 1905. We can see Japanese "residents" had erected shrines on Ulleungdo as well.
