◎ The name East Sea has been in continuous use for roughly 2,000 years.

East Sea hasbeen the recognized name for the body of waters in question for 2,000 years. As indicated in the book Samguksagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), the first known use of the name East Sea was in 37 B.C., predating the national name Japan, which was first put into official use in the 8th century.


◎ Simultaneous use of East Sea and Sea of Japan is reasonable from the perspective of international law.

That being said, since the sea itself is bordered by four countries (South and North Koreas, Japan and Russia), there is a clear need to agree on a name that is acceptable to the neighboring nations. If the nations involved fail to arrive at a consensus, it is recommended that both names appear concurrently. In the case of conflicts over geographical names, the UN conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names recommends concurrent use of both names for the timebeing.

Furthermore, it has long been a general practice to decide on maritime geographical names based on names of continents located on the left side. Korea's claim is that East Sea identifies it as the sea to the east of the Eurasian continent, not only the Korean Peninsula.

The term Sea of Japan is widely recognized by the international community and some 95% of world maps have adopted that name. Changing the name of the sea could cause unnecessary confusion.

The name Sea of Japan was established during the late 18th to early 19th century by the Western world. It has been said that Japan used its growing diplomatic clout to force the use of this term in the late 19th century in what was a successful effort to broadly establish the name Sea of Japan in the international community. Therefore the issue is irrelevant to the Japanese colonial rule.

The name Sea of Japan came from geographical features of the area. Since the Japanese archipelago separates this sea from the Pacific Ocean, the waters in question are rightly called the Sea of Japan and the term does not imply that Japan holds any claim on the sea.

The Korean government's ultimate goal is to persuade the international community to recognize the name East Sea as the official, historically proper English nomenclature for the sea area in question.

At the moment, however, there are some situations where the use of only the name East Sea on its own is not feasible. In those situations, the Korean government supports the concurrent use of both names in accordance with applicable international standardization rules.

The Korean government has made steady efforts to raise international awareness on this issue and push for negotiations, while taking the long-term view.

Over the last decade, the government's efforts to restore the historically proper name have begun to yield some encouraging results: more and more mapmakers and publishers worldwide are identifying the sea concurrently as East Sea / Sea of Japan.

It was in the early 16th century that the sea area between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago began to appear on world maps following worldwide voyages of discovery.

From the 16th to the early 19th century, Westerners used various names for this sea, including Sea of Joseon, Sea of Korea, Eastern Sea, Oriental Sea, Sea of China, and Sea of Japan, but the name used most frequently was undoubtedly Sea of Korea.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, however, the name Sea of Japan began to appear as often as Sea of Korea, and, beginning in the late 19th century, the former started to gain wider acceptance. Since the early 20th century, the name Sea of Japan has been used for the most part on world maps and in publications.

The nautical chart which Jean Francois de Galaup, comte de La Perouse, a French explorer and naval officer, published in 1797 after his marine expedition to Korea, Japan, and Russia (Sakhalin), and another map of the Pacific drawn in 1798 by John Arrowsmith, an English mapmaker, identified the sea in question as Sea of Japan. After that, the name Sea of Korea appeared less frequently.

Since the late 19th century, most maps have used the name Sea of Japan. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, major newspapers around the world used that name in their articles and since the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, it has become the most widely accepted name for the sea.

The first recorded use of the name East Sea can be traced back to a description of King Dongmyeong of the Goguryeo Kingdom in Samguksagi (History of Three Kingdoms), Korea's oldest history book. Samguksagi contains 13 poems that refer to the East Sea, and Samgukyusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), has 15.

One of Korea's oldest atlases, Sinjeung-donggukyeojiseungnam (Newly Expanded Survey of the Geography of Korea, 1530) includes maps of Gyeongsang, Hamgyeong, and Gangwon provinces which clearly refer to the sea as Great Sea of the Lower East (Dongjeodaehae).

The oldest known map among those that use the exact name East Sea (Donghae) is the Map of Yeongnam, which Joseon's Border Defense Council (Bibyeonsa) produced in the late 1740s.

The name Sea of Japan first appeared in 1602 in a map called Mappa Mondo (Complete Map of the World) drawn by Matteo Ricci, an Italian Catholic missionary who was based in Beijing.

The United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) are the two international organizations which provide applicable guidelines when two or more countries sharing a geographical feature do not agree on a common name.

UNCSGN Resolution III/20 (1977) recommends that when a geographical feature is under the sovereignty of more than one country or is divided among two or more countries and the countries sharing a given 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 concerned will be accepted.

IHO Technical Resolution A 4.2.6 (1974) recommends that in a situation where two or more countries share a given geographical feature (for example, a bay, strait, channel or archipelago) and use different name forms, they should endeavor to reach agreement to affix a single name to the feature concerned. If they have different official languages and cannot agree on a common name form, it is recommended that the name forms of each of the languages in question should be accepted for charts and publications unless technical reasons prevent this practice on small single charts, e.g. English Channel/La Manche.

Historically, the sea area between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago has been called the 'East Sea' in Korea for the past two thousand years. And currently 75 million Korean nationals are using the name. In this regard, it is the international practice in designating geographical names that primary consideration is given to the name the residents of the area in question use.

Apart from the historical validity of the name 'East Sea,' we deem it inappropriate to name the sea between Korea and Japan after a single country. Lying between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago and extending north toward Russia, the body of water in question is divided into either territorial waters or EEZ's of the encircling countries. In the absence of the consent of the encircling countries, it is not justifiable to name the sea after one particular country.

Given the historical background of this sea and the international practices in the designation of geographical names, Japan is not entitled to make any exclusive claim on the name of the sea area in question.

The sea area lying between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago was uncharted in the West until the voyages of discovery and exploration began in the early 16th century. On the maps published in the Western world from the 16th to the 19th century, various names for this sea, including the 'Sea of Korea', 'Sea of Joseon', 'Eastern Sea', 'Oriental Sea', 'Sea of China', and 'Sea of Japan' had been used.

Since an accurate survey of ancient maps around the world would be an extremely difficult task, it is not appropriate to draw conclusions from the results of a limited number of studies. However, a comprehensive review of a wide range of studies undertaken reveals that from the 16th to the early 18th century, names related to Korea were more frequently found, but from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, maps published by European countries started to use the name 'Sea of Japan' more often.

Japan uses this fact as a basis for the argument that the name 'Sea of Japan' was internationally established as of the early 19th century. But at that time there was no organization with the authority to determine the standard name of a particular sea area. So Japan's argument that the name 'Sea of Japan' was established internationally is not valid.

Furthermore, even if 'Sea of Japan' was used more than any other names on the maps published in the early 19th century, quite a number of maps did not include any names for the sea area in question. This shows, rather, that neither 'Sea of Japan' nor any other names related to Korea were in fact established at that time.

Therefore, the various references to the sea area in question on the ancient maps available demonstrate that no particular name can be recognized as being the only valid one.

In the case of a dispute regarding the term of a geographical area extending over two or more states' territories, the relevant UNCSGN resolutions and IHO technical resolutions can be applied.

- UNCSGN Resolution Ⅲ20 (adopted in 1977)

Considering the need for international standardization of names of geographical features that are under the sovereignty of more than one country or are divided among two or more countries,

1. Recommends that countries sharing a given geographical feature under different names should endeavor, as far as possible, to reach agreement on fixing a single name for the feature concerned;

2. Further recommends that when countries sharing a given 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. A policy of accepting only one or some of such names while excluding the rest would be inconsistent in principle as well as inexpedient in practice. Only technical reasons may sometimes make it necessary, especially in the case of small-scale maps, to dispense with the use of certain names belonging to one language or another.

- IHO Technical Resolutions A.4.2.6 (adopted in 1974)

It is recommended that when two or more countries share a given geographical feature under a different name form, they should endeavor to reach agreement on fixing a single name for the feature concerned. If they have different official languages and cannot agree on a common name form, it is recommended that the name form of each of the languages in question should be accepted together for the charts and publications unless technical reasons prevent this practice on small scale charts e.g. English Channel/La Manche.

In accordance with the resolutions of the related international organizations, which recommend the simultaneous use of the names when there are naming disputes, Korea is strongly calling for both 'East Sea/Sea of Japan', to be used simultaneously until agreement is reached on a common designation. However, Japan insists that those resolutions are not applicable to the area in question, on the basis of the reasoning that there is no dispute over the naming of this sea area in question.

The Korean Government is actively working for broader international use of 'East Sea', emphasizing that 'East Sea' has been in use for more than 2,000 years, and is currently being used by 75 million Korean nationals. In reality, however, the name 'Sea of Japan' is more widely used in world maps and government documents.

This extensive use of 'Sea of Japan' is closely linked to the rise of Japan's international influence as an Asian power in the late 19th century, a time when a great many world maps which were very similar to current maps were produced.

Moreover, at the time the International Hydrographic Organization published the first edition of 'Limits of Oceans and Seas' in 1929, a major source of reference for the names of borders and waters around the world, Korea was under Japanese colonization. Korea was therefore deprived of the opportunity to assert the legitimacy of the name 'East Sea' to the international community. This also was a factor in the fact that 'Sea of Japan' quickly became an established term at the international level.

Since the name 'Sea of Japan' alone was included in the first edition of 'Limits of Oceans and Seas' in 1929, the name 'Sea of Japan' has been widely used. And many world maps currently use this term.

However, with the government efforts to restore the name for the last fifteen years, the name 'East Sea' has increasingly been used on a number of maps , and in various publications and media.

Japan's rationale for the use of the 'Sea of Japan' can be summarized into the following four points.

- 'Sea of Japan' is an internationally established term used in 95% of the maps published worldwide, and a change in the name will give rise to unnecessary confusion.

- 'Sea of Japan' is a term established by the West during the late 18th century and the early 19th century.

- The sea has been named 'Sea of Japan' in light of the geographical feature that the Japanese Archipelago separates the sea area in question from the Pacific Ocean. The fact that a sea carries the name of a country does not connote ownership over the area in question.

- Korea's claim regarding the term 'East Sea' stems from political considerations. In response to Japan's allegations, Korea's basic position is as follows :

- Historically, the name 'East Sea' has been in use for the past 2000 years by Korean people. Until the 19th century, various names including 'Korean Sea', 'Sea of Joseon' and 'Oriental Sea' had been used. There are therefore no grounds for Japan's argument that the name 'Sea of Japan' was internationally established. Indeed, it entered into wider usage only in the early 20th century when the IHO recognized 'Japan Sea' as the only name in the sea area in question.

- The fact that the name 'East Sea' used by 75 million South and North Koreans is not taken into due account is counter to the general principles of international cartography whereby the primary consideration is the name the residents in the neighboring countries of the area use.

- We do not insist on identifying the sea area in question as the 'Sea of Korea', the designation that many old maps published in the West had used. This is because it is inappropriate and indeed wrong to refer to a sea area surrounded by Korea, Russia, and Japan using the name of a particular country without the consent of the parties involved.

- There is no generally accepted methodology for naming seas on world maps. There are a variety of different cases, including concurrently using both names on the area in question on a basis of consensus, naming it after the land tits west or after the island separating the area from a main ocean. Considering the fact that the sea area in question is surrounded by four countries, it is rather neutral and appropriate to call it 'East Sea', meaning the east of the Eurasian continent. We would point here to the case of 'North Sea', where the parties concerned agreed to use a rather neutral reference in the face of a naming dispute.

- As there is clearly a dispute over the naming of the area between Korea and Japan, in accordance with the IHO and the UNCSGN resolutions which are the international standards for dealing with disputes over naming, the best approach is to use both names until the two sides reach an agreement.

The ROK government is devising and implementing various policies to ensure that 'East Sea', the English name of 'Donghae', becomes firmly established in the global community.

First of all, the Government continues to pursue consultations with governments of various countries on the legitimacy of the name 'East Sea' through diplomatic channels. In tandem with such efforts, through omnidirectional negotiations and promotional activities, the Government is striving to achieve the widespread use of 'East Sea' on world maps and in atlases, encyclopedias, school books and other foreign sources.

We are planning to publish promotional materials in English on the naming of the 'East Sea' and hold international seminars to raise international awareness of the legitimacy of the name 'East Sea'. We are also pursuing consultations with the United Nations and other international organizations.

For the last 15 years, the Korean Government and its nationals have continuously raised the issue of naming the 'East Sea' and have demonstrated the legitimacy of the name in the international community. As a result, more and more countries and related organizations are accepting the fact that there is a dispute over the naming of the 'East Sea' between Korea and Japan. Finally, it is clear that a number of prominent mapmakers, media companies and publishers, including the renowned Internet agencies worldwide, are using the dual designation of 'East Sea/Sea of Japan' in describing the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japanese Archipelago.

The practice of the UN Secretariat is to use, in the absence of an internationally agreed standard, the most widespread and generally recognized denomination.

The practice of the UN Secretariat is rather an expedient one, which has never been approved as the UN practice itself. Accordingly, there are no grounds for Japan's allegation that the UN authorized the name 'Sea of Japan' as the standard geographical term for the sea area in question.

The government of the Republic of Korea has consistently maintained the position that the policy of the UN Secretariat of using the name 'Sea of Japan' as the most common and widespread denomination for the body of water in question is unacceptable. It has been explicitly requesting that this be rectified in accordance with the UNCSGN resolution recommending the simultaneous use of the names until disputing states reach an agreement.

In response to the Korean government's request that it rectify its practice of using the name 'Sea of Japan', the UN Secretariat, calling for the reaching of agreement through negotiations between Korea and Japan, expressed its official position as follows:

- The UN practice of using, in the absence of an internationally agreed standard, the most widespread and generally recognized denomination is without any prejudice to the position of any Member State of the United Nations on a particular appellation and does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations. It goes without saying that the use of an appellation by the Secretariat based on the above-cited and established practice is without prejudice to any negotiations or agreements between the interested parties and should not be interpreted as advocating or endorsing any party's position, and can in no way be invoked by any party in support of a particular position in the matter.