By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
The government will send a delegation to a U.N. meeting on Maritime Affairs and Sectoral Policies slated for Aug. 21-30 in New York to tackle lingering issues dividing Korea and Japan regarding geographical ownership, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Monday. Korea claims the sea separating the two nations is, in fact, the ``East Sea,'' not the ``Sea of Japan.''
The 10-member delegation will participate in the ninth U.N. Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.
The delegation has already submitted documents regarding the government's stance on issues regarding the East Sea and will raise such matters during the meeting.
Song Young-wan, director-general of the ministry's international organization bureau who is leading the delegation, will give a speech addressing the importance of Korea's right to the naming.
The government first asked the international community to recognize the East Sea in the sixth U.N. conference held in 1992. However, Japan has claimed ownership to the area, insisting it be called the Sea of Japan.
The conference, established by a resolution of the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 1965, is held every five years to discuss national policies on the standardization of geographical names.
However, the conference doesn't decide on the actual naming process, focusing rather on technical consultations, according to ministry officials.
The U.N.'s Group of Experts on Geographical Names will convene Aug. 31 to discuss how to implement the outcome of the conference.
The group meets every two years and Lee Ki-suk, emeritus professor of Seoul National University, will lead discussions.
Seoul has said that the East Sea should be implemented as a historically and geographically appropriate name because it was called that until Japan's military expansionism.
The title, ``Sea of Japan,'' was forcibly imposed during the Japanese colonial rule 1910 to 1945.
The imposing is null and void because Korea was deprived of sovereignty and diplomatic representation under the Japanese rule, the ministry claims.