Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Guri Guy]

Government Won't Insist on 'East Sea' Name

Gov't Working to Lessen Support for 'Sea of Japan'
Korea, Japan Renew Arm Wrestling Over East Sea
Korea Faces Heavy Seas at Ocean Conference
The South Korean government does not plan to suggest using both "East Sea" and "Sea of Japan" at this week's general conference of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), diplomatic sources have said. The IHO will decide the official name of the sea between Korea and Japan for a new edition of "Limits of Oceans and Seas," a guide for map makers around the globe.

According to the sources, the government has decided not to demand the name "East Sea" since there seems little possibility of gaining a majority vote at the conference. Instead, Korea will suggest the issue be decided at the next general conference scheduled to be held five years from now. "The possibility that this issue will be put to a vote at this general conference is low, but the government is preparing in the event another member country brings up the issue," a government official said.

The IHO will discuss the publication of a new edition of "Limits of Oceans and Seas" and using both "East Sea" and "Sea of Japan" at a review session on Wednesday afternoon.

([email protected] )

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705080017.html

Looks like Korea is good at talking smack but can't back it up. They have a bit of nerve telling English speakers what to call the Sea of Japan anyway. Looks like they will wait 5 years before bringing up this garbage again. The funniest thing was they were preparing for the possibility that another country brought up the subject. Right...

[in_seoul_2003]

...

[Hollywoodaction]

The issue is too valuable to the Korean government to settle. It's one of the few sure ways to drum up nationalism and xenophobia, so why would they want to do so?

[jinju]

Well, I refuse to call it the Sea of Japan. Sometimes people are confused, especially back home but I call it the East Sea anyway.

[SPINOZA]

This as an old British map from the 1700s. Brought to my attention recently.

more

[mindmetoo]

[Guri Guy]

I demand that they rename the Korean strait the Japanese Strait since 3/4 of it lies in Japanese territory! Hee hee.



Oh but wait. The Japanese aren't petty and don't care about such things.

BTW, Sea of Korea is ok. East Sea is stupid. However, Sea of Japan has been the standard since 1929 and has been used in the vast majority of maps since 1600 so I think it should stay. Just my opinion of course.
Notice that Koreans are not campaigning to rename the Yellow Sea the West Sea. Older brother is ok. Younger brother is wrong.


Dokdo Center, �East Sea Cannot Beat Sea of Japan�

[Segye.com] �The percentage of world maps that show Sea of Japan is so much higher than those that show East Sea that it is incomparable�.Now Takeshima is generally used more around the world than Dokdo. If the Sea of Japan and Takeshima are combined, their synergy will make it much more likely that they will be recognized as Japanese territory.� (Dokdo Center)

At 10 a.m. on the 24th, a Dokdo Solidarity Academic Forum will be held in the auditorium of the Dokdo Center. The participants will discuss the need for creating systematic countermeasures for dealing with the fact that the name East Sea cannot win over the Sea of Japan, which has global recognition.

The Dokdo Center claims that since the people of the world commonly see the name East Sea in terms of a compass direction, we need a proper name that will be recognized by the people of the world. The center says, therefore, we need to put forth a name that is historically and logically more rational than the Sea of Japan. The center added, we have to name it �Joseon Sea� since that name was commonly used in East Asia for the East Sea in the past.

Among those presenting at the forum will be Dokdo Museum Director Lee Seung-jin and Busan Foreign Language University Professor Kim Mun-gil, who will be using a great deal of Japanese data to shed more light on Korea�s territorial claims.

Segye.com Reporter Yu Myeong-jun [email protected]

March 23, 2007 (Friday) 17:28

Link to the article

So, since Koreans are the only ones in the world who use the name �East Sea� for the Sea of Japan, they now want to drop that name and, instead, use �Joseon Sea,� a name that no one in the world uses, including Koreans? Does that make sense?

It seems pretty obvious to me that Koreans just view this �sea-naming� game as a kind of competition with Japan, which does nothing but make Koreans look silly in the eyes of the world. Someone in authority in Korea needs to stand up and say, as loud as he or she can, �Let�s just drop this issue before we look any sillier than we already do. Pursuing this is hurting us more than it is helping us.�

[Kyrei]

Is it not a standard of naming conventions that the "Sea of..." refers to the land that is between the "sea" and the open ocean, as in "Sea of Japan"? I remember reading that but cannot find any back-up for that point... that and I am too lazy to look real hard.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[JMO]

[pastis]

Okay, when I look a map, it seems fairly obvious that the sea is best defined the geography of Japan. Korea is just a little blip of a peninsula at the bottom, but the sea also borders a lot of Russian territory. There is no rational reason to change the name from the Sea of Japan (which is a marginal sea dependent upon Japan by definition) to the arbitrary and Korea-centric "East Sea". Leaving nationalistic and historical bias out of it, Japan (the landmass) has the most coastline bordering the sea, more than Korea or Russia (minus Sakhalin) and is the only of these landmasses that defines the marginal sea. Using directons (such as East) is needlessly ambiguous, and calling it the "Japan-Korea-Russia Sea" would be absurd. Sea of Japan works great. This is obvious to whole world except Korea.

[endo]

[Sine qua non]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Young FRANKenstein]