Comments on: Yeah, but what does VANK think about all this?

By: War declarations, physical responses, sanctions, Article 42 and PSI, oh my! at The Marmot’s Hole

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:40:16 +0000

[...] Fresh from bringing us startling news that the New York Times was defacing its maps with the “Sea of Japan,” the Kyunghyang Shinmun reports that the greatest beneficiary of North Korea’s recent nuke test was—you guessed it—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Thanks to Kim Jong-il’s theatrics, Abe was able to push the thorny history issue aside during his summits with Hu Jintao and Roh Moo-hyun. And, of course, it helps his ambition to turn Japan into a military power. [...]

By: Zonath

Zonath — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:11:30 +0000

when countries sharing a given geographical feature do not agree on a common name, it should be a general rule of cartography that the name used by each of the countries concerned will be accepted.

There really ought to be something in that rule that would stop a country from suddenly caring (and making a big stink) over a name that they’ve accepted (and used) for years.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:50:38 +0000

Hey, don’t forget Lake Ontario….hmmm, I mean, yeah, the Bay of Mexico. Did I mention that I love my southern neighbors?

By: Haisan

Haisan — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:02:20 +0000

Actually, the issue is not about sharing a geographic boundary named after one or another country (or part of that country). The issue is sharing a geographical boundary named after one party and *caring*. The US has never made an issue of the Gulf of Mexico.

To quote the the third UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names from 1977, from “Names of Features beyond a Single Sovereignty”. The resolution recommended:
“when countries sharing a given geographical feature do not agree on a common name, it should be a general rule of cartography that the name used by each of the countries concerned will be accepted.”

But, obviously, caring about the name of a body of water when someone is testing nukes next door is stupid to the extreme. Like noticing a bad paint job on your apartment building’s seventh floor while plummeting to earth from the 20th.

By: montclaire

montclaire — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:33:56 +0000

And is it just me, or does the Sea of Japan actually seem Japanese? I don’t know, just a…majestic quality to it.

By: Wedge

Wedge — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:30:36 +0000

I once was talking to a chica and she asked what if the Atlantic were called the English Ocean. I said I wouldn’t care too much, what with the Gulf of Mexico already being to our south. “What???” was the inarticulate reply.

Only someone with an inferiority complex cares about what bodies of water are called, and the VANKers complex is ocean-sized.

By: Darin

Darin — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:27:24 +0000

One of my Korean friends got a little upset and said how would your country react to a body of water on your shore that was named after another country?
I replied….”You mean like the Gulf of Mexico?”
He shut up.

You could have mentioned the Korea Bay bordering China too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_Bay

Oh wait, I thought Sea of Japan wasn’t reasonable because it implies ownership and you can’t own a body of water. Perhaps changing the name from Sea of Japan to Japan Bay would demote the size of the body of water and make it more acceptable

By: Maekchu

Maekchu — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:50:35 +0000

Everyone knows it’s the Sea of Japan. Why can’t they get over it?

In one of my favorite watering holes, this subject came up and I said it’s obviously the Sea of Japan. Always has been and always will. One of my Korean friends got a little upset and said how would your country react to a body of water on your shore that was named after another country?

I replied….”You mean like the Gulf of Mexico?”

He shut up.

By: GI Korea

GI Korea — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:47:06 +0000

I knew it! There was a Korean guy complaining on the New York Times Blog about commenters and the NY Times using Sea of Japan instead of the East Sea on the site. I figured the guy was one of those stupid VANKers. You can always count on VANKers to remind us in times of crisis of what is really important.

By: montclaire

montclaire — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:24:34 +0000

The arrogance implicit in that “mistakenly” is breathtaking, as if the Koreans can arbitrarily decide the one right way to name the sea - a way that makes sense only from where the Koreans are standing, I might add.
Sea of Japan. Sea of Japan. Sea of Japan. Deal with it.