In a scoop, the Kukmin Ilbo reports that a map at the homepage of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China (i.e., the Chinese government) exclusively marks the body of water that separates the Korean Peninsula from Japan as the “Sea of Japan.”
In Korea, of course, that body of water is called the “East Sea.”
The paper also reports that it was recently discovered that a map at the UN-run website Cyber School Bus also marks the sea as the “Sea of Japan” without a simultaneous “East Sea” in parentheses.
The Kukmin Ilbo points out that one of the problems with the labeling is that it could lead people to mistakenly believe that the Dokdo islets are Japanese territory.
Cyber, ahem, diplomacy group VANK president Park Gi-tae said this was the first instance that such as error was discovered on a Chinese site, and that his group would quickly dash off an official letter of protest to the Chinese government.
He noted that his group has been having success with their map-correction demands since “Japan’s imperialist history is widely known globally.” He added that in August 2004, when it was discovered to everyone’s horror that the Canadian Foreign Ministry had labeled its map “The Sea of Japan,” corrections were made within two days following a mass of protest letters.
Oh, and the map labels the Senkaku Islands as the Tiaoyutai Islands.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s no surprise. The elections are coming.
Do the VANKers demand that Huang Hai have a simultaneous “West Sea” in paranthesis?
Rhetorical question.
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It amazes me the amount of pride the VANKers take in being so annoying that people make the change just so they will go away.
I could at least respect what they were doing if they actually tried to prove they had a valid point. Or maybe they just don’t have any valid points….
Wouldn’t it be great if countries could take out restraining orders on other countries?
“Korea, you may go no closer to China than the width of the Yellow Sea at its narrowest point …”
Hey, the Chinese probably just recently changed it after the incident with the stupid Korean skaters at the Asian games holding up their idiotic sign. That would be hilarious if they did that on purpose just to piss Korea off. hahaha.
I can just imagine VANK now. They must be foaming at the mouth and pulling their hair out in anger knowing that they are getting dissed from both sides of the peninsula. Oh well, looks like the entire population of Korea will have alot of work to do in terms of hacking and sending email bombs!
Yeah, erm… good luck with that. With all the protests the Chinese government probably gets from all over the world on various issues, I wouldn’t be half surprised if the comment email address on their website emptied into /dev/null
i think koreans should stop fighting battles that make them look petty.
I stayed at a hostel in New Zealand last year, as part of two months of traveling around the world. One wall of the common room was a world map. The “Sea of Japan” had been crossed out and rewritten several times in succession.
It was the only bit of graffiti I could see on the entire map.
Islas Malvinas.
As Michael pointed out, we are starting to see what was formally Hwang-hae (황해) morphing into Seo-hae (서해) on domestically produced maps. Obviously, it’s a ploy to add credence to the Sea of Japan (East Sea) claim. VANK maintains a spam target list of websites that differ with their point of view.
Read more here from the About Geography page: http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa022402a.htm
re-name China on all Korean maps……..Two can play at this dick-dance.
VANK is/are the biggest bunch of assholes this side of the Ural Mountains.
That is, of course, after all the Bush/Cheney chicken fried %&$*heads on this bulletin board.
Hmmm… chicken fried %&$*heads. Should I look foward to seeing that terminology used in your next Korea Times screed, Mr. Ruffin?
The latest enty on Yankabroad reads,
Someone should either inform the Secret Service or hold this fellow down and medicate him. Yet in Korea, he meets editorial standards. Figures.
I swear, all this map stuff and whatnot is a much bigger deal on these blogs than they are in real life. Seriously, the average Korean in the street doesn’t really care so much about it.
“I swear, all this map stuff and whatnot is a much bigger deal on these blogs than they are in real life. Seriously, the average Korean in the street doesn’t really care so much about it.”
I’d say amen to that and add that, for better or worse, Korea itself is a much bigger deal on these blogs than it is in real life.
I’m really curious how on earth you would know that. Seriously. I mean, by your own admission you’ve spent very little time in Korea during the past decade. Or are you referring to the average Korean on the street in Fort Lee?
In any event, VANK antics and these map stories _regularly_ appear above the fold on page 1 of Korean newspapers. Whether that translates into the average Korean on the street caring so much about it, I don’t know, but someone sure seems to think it sells newspapers.
Here we go again…
The Koreans are just now figuring out that China, like every other nation outside the Korean peninsula, calls it the Sea of Japan? The maps, atlases, and school textbooks I bought in China all use “Sea of Japan.” All Chinese know that the East Sea is that large body of water east of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
Clearly jives is tuned in to the Korean zeitgeist. He also believes that the average Korean on the street doesn’t care about visits to the Yakusuni shrine, the Korean national soccer team, Dokto, the Korean Olympic team, the US FTA agreement, entertainers personal lives, the upcoming Korean presidential election, or North Korean nukes.
Well, wait a second. He’s probably right about that last one.
Good for China!
“…North Korean nukes.
Well, wait a second. He’s probably right about that last one.”
Actually, most of the Koreans I’ve spoken to about this couldn’t decide which was the biggest idiot: George W. Bush, Roh Moo Hyun, or Kim Jong Il (‘the trinity of drivel’).
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