A body of historical evidences corroborate Korean argument of East Sea being East Sea. Early Western explorers of 18th and 19th century clearly favor calling the East Sea, the Sea of Corea or Chosun Sea rather than Sea of Japan. (Image credit: UK, John Senex, 1710, 94.3×64.8㎝ / The Eastern or Corea Sea)
SEOUL, March 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Choi Hyun-jung, a 17-year-old South Korean high school student, corrected Sea of Japan nomenclature in an article by London-based news site The Stack (www.thestack.com) to East Sea – a decades-long naming dispute between the neighboring countries.
Choi is one of the “youth public ambassadors,” a joint initiative by the Yonhap News Agency and Voluntary Agency Network of Korea.
Upon discovering The Stack’s article, Google Maps fights over hosting Korean geographical data, that used a map reference with a Sea of Japan nomenclature, she decided to email one of the company’s reporters, Martin Anderson, requesting a correction.
She informed Mr. Anderson of the iniquity of the Japanese title, that Sea of Japan is one of the vestiges of Japanese colonialism, and mentioned that international agencies including the International Hydrographic Organization and the UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names advise countries sharing landmarks to come up with a new designation or use all available names.
The Stack decided to accept the student’s proposal, apologized in its reply, and corrected its image that now labels the water East Sea. (image: The Stack website)
Choi also mentioned that multinational publications such as National Geographic, World Atlas and Lonely Planet use both names on their maps, while introducing examples of other overseas organizations that now use East Sea as the principle title of the body of water.
The Stack decided to accept the student’s proposal, apologized in its reply, and corrected its image that now labels the water East Sea.
“I’ve made many requests to websites that use Sea of Japan but they all refused. Yet, I didn’t give up and eventually managed to get an exclusive nomenclature for the East Sea by The Stack,” she said, sharing her experience on her blog. “I will continue my endeavor to correct the titles in all other maps in the world.”
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
