Yonhap (via the Hankyoreh) reports that in their articles on the North Korean missile launches, an overwhelming majority of the world’s media are calling the body of water where the missiles landed the “Sea of Japan” rather than “East Sea.”
This is leading some to question the government’s efforts in promoting the international use of the name “East Sea.”
Major “Sea of Japan” offenders include AP, Reuters, DPA, UPI, the New York Times and those dirty Japanophiles at the BBC.
The Financial Times, however, while calling the body of water the “Sea of Japan” in their July 5 story on the missiles, included a map on which the sea was simultaneously marked “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan.” The Times called the area where the missiles landed “the sea separating North Korea and Japan” (note: translated from the Korean), and its map was simultaneously marked “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan.” The IHT also used a simultaneously marked map.
Whose fault is this? Why, Japan’s, of course! Some blame the foreign press’ verbatim citing of NHK reports on the missile tests for the overwhelming use of “Sea of Japan,” said Yonhap. NHK, of course, was the media company that broke news of the tests.
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This actually took longer then I thought it would. As soon as I saw an article that said, “Sea of Japan” I knew people were going to be screaming about it. “It’s our lunatic that’s firing the missiles, so we get to name it!!”
Chosun Ilbo and Joongang Daily ALSO referred to it as Sea of Japan in their English editions. Guess what VANKers and Korean Govt. people- it is called the Sea of Japan in English, like it or not!
A pretty good gauge of how much damage the DJ/Roh Axis of Sunshine and Bribery has done:
In a very sizeable number of discussions among pundits and articles about the North Korean conundrum in the last week since the missile test, the conventional wisdom no longer identifies China as the sole benefactor of the Norks. South Korea is now mentioned regularly right alongside China as a significant contributor to the lifeline that sustains North Korea.
4-5 years ago, this was rare, if not non-existent. China was virtually alone in that shameful boat. And now, Roh and his band of cowering queens stand right alongside their Communist brothers, shoveling the cash that builds the missiles.
Quite an accomplishment for the Sunshine sisters.
I scooped “The Marmot”!
Because both newspapers took their stories from the AP… Probably with no signifigant editing or proofreading.
Feeds the sensationalism, East Sea seems to benign. Sea of Japan makes it all more nationalistic. I am sure some people in the US government pushed for this article.
Frankly it is a good idea. People should be concerned about someone messing in the backyard of the second largest economy. S. Korea should treat it like the global issue it is not the domestic one they wish it was.
East Sea is a stupid choice. Even the Sea of Korea would make more sense.
Much Kudos to our man Max Foster on CNN International (broadcasting from London) who refered to “The East Sea”.
See here:http://www.stafford.net.nz/2006/07/taepodong-go-boom
Still think the We Hate Those Bastards On The Other Side Sea would be agreeable to both. Until then it’s the Sea of Japan when in the company of Koreans and the East Sea when with the Japanese. Koreans much easier to wind up.
The Sea of Mutual Antagonism?
I propose, as a compromise, that the aforementioned body of water be renamed the North China Sea. I mean there is already an East and South, this would make a triple play!
I may be an idiot here and my friends frequently say so, but it seems to me that given the location of Japan, the “Sea of Japan” is labeled so functionally, not for nationalistic purposes. What would it be called if the Japanese islands weren’t there? The pacific ocean? Or the East Ocean? Ahh, then the argument would be with someone else. East Sea can only be considered nation-centric. I mean, is Sea of Japan the name given to that body of water by Japanese of old or by later European navigators who recognized it as a Sea and not an Ocean? Only reason for Japanese to oppose its being formally changed internationally to East Sea is that this is an obvious attempt to make them lose face.
Now, if it was called the “Sea of our Imperial Lord and Eternal Protector” that would be different.
Amen to MrChips. Sea of Japan is the proper name for that body of water, not East Sea - unless Koreans can put forth a coherent logical argument to the contrary, which so far they haven’t.
Korean arguments typically follow the pattern of forcing the Korean perspective on others without a cogent argument to do so.
The bottom line is Korean identity is largely defined by paranoia, hatred and envy of Japan - which is a very dysfunctional way to define yourself. No wonder Korean society is itself dysfunctional; relationships are defined by greed, hatred and envy rather than mutual good will. What we are seeing today is the inevitable result. Brace yourself for many hardships to come.
“North China Sea”
I personally think that’s the only logical solution. Calling it the East Sea wouldn’t make sense to Japan because it’s the West of Japan so a mutual ‘center’ must be found. Geographically, culturally, and historically that center has always been China, so just go for the North China Sea.
But really does it need to be changed? This isn’t an issue about the naming being ‘wrong’ so much as it’s just an obvious anti-Japan move. If it was really about possession, then there would be many other places for Korea to complain about besides Japan… but they don’t. If it is a ’symbol of Japanese aggression’, then what about the other Seas of China that China had conquered (however they weren’t named that because of it, they were trade routes to China — China just refers to them as the East and South Seas), but no, no problems there. It’s just about pushing around Japan.
In both Japan and Korea, they have this societal ‘issue’ were they bully the weak and honor the strong. In the east it’s called ‘confucianism’ but in the west it’s called ‘immature’. Interestingly enough, China, the origin of confucianism, has grown up much faster then it’s former followers.
Darin: Geographically, culturally, and historically that center has always been China, so just go for the North China Sea.
Doesn’t really work, since there already is a North China Sea. The Chinese name actually refers to it as the North Sea. China also has an East Sea and a South Sea. The international names just add the word “China” before the word “Sea”.
Then the Sea of Darin it is! And yes, that does symbolize my possession, I also claim all resources and meaningless rocks in my sea as property of Darin共和国
I don’t mind calling it the East Sea. After all, it is east of Korea. But now we have eunichs in Yongsan telling us that the Koreans get offended if we refer to the “West Sea” as the “Yellow Sea”. So our maps get cut and paste jobs to replace “Yellow Sea” with “West Sea”. This obviously from Korean experts who cannot understand that “Hwanghae” was the recognized name for at least 600 years. Hell, there’s still a Hwanghae (Yellow Sea) province just across the DMZ.
Someone call VANK. An article in National Geographic referred to Central Country as “China”.
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[...] It’s really a shame, for the people of both South and North Korea, that President Roh and his government are willing to let the Pyongyang get away with anything. They claim to be acting in the name of reunification, but they are merely doing all they can to keep Kim Jong-Il in power. Pretty pathetic. In other lame Korean-related news, it seems that some people in Korea are angry that foreign media has been using the English name “Sea of Japan” instead of Korea-centric “East Sea” in news reports about the missile tests[reported by Marmot’s Hole]. I guess the Korea-based anti-Japanese spam campaigns against “Sea of Japan” has yet to convince the world to change its well-established naming conventions for seas. By Grom, 10. July 2006, 03:50 o’clock [...]