East Sea, Not Sea of Japan

By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter

The Northeast Asian History Foundation will exhibit historical maps that support Korea's claim that the term "Sea of Japan" should be replaced with "East Sea" or "Sea of Korea."

"The exhibition will shed new light on the contentious issue over the naming of the body of water between the Koreas and Japan," Shim Jeong-bo, a researcher at the foundation, said Wednesday.

He said a total of 40 maps that date back to the early 20th century or before will be exhibited from March 2 to 9 at the National Assembly Library.

"The maps collected from Japan and Western countries show that these countries marked the contentious sea area as Korea's maritime territory in the early days," Shim said. "You will notice that Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia named it the Eastern Sea on their maps, including the Map of Marco Polo's Voyages in 1744, even before Korea began to mark the names of maritime territories on its maps."

Shim said the exhibition will help verify the legitimacy of Korea's claim that the contentious appellation, "Sea of Japan," should be replaced with "East Sea/Sea of Japan."

Experts here claim that the East Sea has as much historical precedent as the "Sea of Japan," the dominant appellation during Japan's colonial rule of Korea in the early 20th century.

They say when a geographic name is disputed, both names are entitled to be used internationally until a solution is determined.

In 2007, Korea made a proposal to the Ninth Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names instituted by the United Nations over the issue.

However, the conference made no decision on the issue, urging the two neighboring countries to find a commonly accepted solution.

Japanese claims that "Sea of Japan" is not a colonial heritage and was commonly adopted during the early 19th century, when Japan was more exposed to the international community compared to Korea.

leeth@koreatimes.co.kr

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