By Kim Bo-eun
The National Map Museum is to display various maps from foreign countries which have the East Sea and Dokdo marked on them, starting Friday.
The exhibition will show 49 original maps of the East Sea and Dokdo from Japan, the United Kingdom and France at the museum, the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs said Wednesday.
There will be a map which shows that even Japanese charts marked the disputed waters as the “Sea of Joseon.” Japanese maps that existed prior to the first edition of the world’s official marine chart created by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) in 1929, during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea, verify this.
A map created in 1810 during the Edo Period in Japan marked the body of water bordered by Korea, Japan and Russia as the “Sea of Joseon.”
Other maps drawn up by the Japanese in 1850 and 1863 respectively have marked Ulleungdo and Dokdo as Korean territory.
Western maps made during the 18th and 19th centuries also recognize the waters belonging to Korea.
“The Empire of Japan” map created in 1794 in England has the “Corean Sea” marked on it, and also indicates Ulleungdo and Dokdo as Korean territory.
L’Asie, a French map originating from the mid to late 1800s has the disputed waters marked as Mer de Coree (Sea of Corea).
A map of Joseon drawn up in 1735 by D’Anville, a French cartographer, which was the first Western map of Korea, classified the two disputed islets as Korean land.
“Although the 18th IHO general meeting did not accept marking the waters as both the East Sea and the Sea of Japan, we are hosting this exhibition to promote the fact that our assertion over the waters and islets is valid,” said an official.