Lee Hyo-jin covers the Bank of Korea, the banking industry and broader financial news. Her previous beats include foreign affairs, North Korea and general reporting on Korean society.
VANK urges UN to add 'East Sea' on its map
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea's poster criticizing the United Nations for its map only using the name “Sea of Japan” to identify the ocean between South Korea and Japan / Courtesy of VANK
By Lee Hyo-jin
By Lee Hyo-jin
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a civic organization promoting Korean culture and history online, is urging the United Nations to add the name “East Sea” on its map indicating the ocean between South Korea and Japan, criticizing the international organization for referring to the body of water only as the “Sea of Japan.”
VANK has produced posters in English denouncing the UN for the misleading information on its official map and has posted an online petition on the website “Bridge Asia.”
The group pointed out last month that the UN's geo service map (
) is identifying the waters between South Korea and Japan only as the “Sea of Japan,” instead of concurrently using the “East Sea / Sea of Japan” names.
The civic group claimed that the international organization is not following its own principle on the identification of geographic naming.
A resolution adopted at a UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names in 1977 reads, “When countries sharing a geographical feature do not succeed in agreeing on a common name, it should be a general rule of international cartography that the name used by each of the countries will be accepted.”
It also reads, “A policy of accepting only one or some of such names while excluding the rest would be inconsistent as well as inexpedient in practice.”
The civic group said it sent a letter of protest to the UN in October, but has neither received a response nor seen any modification of the map in question.
“Leaving such misinformation on the UN website will lead to big problems. The Japanese government may use it as a chance to promote the term 'Sea of Japan' among the international community,” said Park Gi-tae, head of VANK.