Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Hyunseo Lee, a high school student in South Korea.

While surfing the web, I visited your web-site, which is involved many information with global clients. Also I found a photo that refers to the sea between South Korea and Japan as "Mar del Japo'n." So, I am writing to you this email to inform you that the correct term for the sea is "Mar del Este". Please read my mail and hope you can understand why the correct term the sea is " Mar del Este".

South Korea and Japan have different opinions about internationally used name in the sea between the two countries. The two countries is completely different name and to use only one of these it is not correct and especially only use the name "Mar del Japo'n" is just Japan's wrong claim.

The International Hydrographic Organization Technical Resolution and the United Nations Resolution on the Standardization of Geographical Names recommend that countries sharing a geographical area, but use different names to refer to the area, should endeavor to reach an agreement on a single name. Should they fail to reach an agreement, the name used by each country involved should be concurrently adopted for charts and publications.

Japan insists that the United Nations (UN) has officially approved of the name "Mar del Japo'n", which is not exactly true. It is not the UN that uses the name "Mar del Japo'n", but only its secretariat, a principal arm of the UN. Therefore, the secretariat using only the "Mar del Japo'n" does not represent the opinion of all 192 members of the UN.

Furthermore, the UN Secretariat uses only the "Mar del Japo'n" according to its internal practice which spells out that "for any names in dispute, it uses the most widely used name before relevant parties reach the agreement."

The UN Secretariat does not support any single party engaged in dispute with other countries and states that its practice of using a single name should not be invoked by any one party to strengthen its position in a dispute. (Letter from UN Secretariat to UN Ambassador of South Korea in June 2004).

Since South Korea and Japan are unable to reach an agreement on the naming issue, South Korea’s view is that international norms should be followed, thereby using both the "Mar del Este" and the "Mar del Japo'n" concurrently. Therefore, it is a mistake to refer the sea as "Mar del Japo'n." I suggest that you write "Mar del Este" on where you marked "Mar del Japo'n."

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Hyunseo Lee