The island located between the Korean peninsula and Japanese archipelago is described as “Liancourt Rocks.” The name “Liancourt Rocks” was given by a French whaling ship “Liancourt” which charted the island in 1849 and has been used by western people, but never by its local people.
The name of the island is “Dokdo”, which has long been used by the Korean people. The island Dokdo is an integral part of Korean territory, historically, geographically and under international law. There are plenty of evidences that support the fact. And the government of South Korea exercises its irrefutable territorial sovereignty over Dokdo. Therefore no territorial dispute exists regarding Dokdo. I would like to request you to use the name “Dokdo” instead of “Liancourt Rocks” on the map of your website.
In addition, the body of water lying between Korea and Japan is incorrectly described as “Sea of Japan.” The correct name of the sea at issue is the "East Sea" which has been used in Korea for more than 2000 years as illustrated in various reference such as "History of the Three Kingdoms" published in 1145. The name "Sea of Japan", however, was first used by Mateo Ricci in 1602 and various historical records show that the Japanese themselves did not refer to the sea area as the "Sea of Japan" for a long time.
Under the general rule of international cartography confirmed recently in the International Hydrographic Organization(IHO) and the United Nations(UN), if the countries concerned fail to reach agreement about the standardization of the name of sea disputed, the names used by each of the countries should be used concurrently.
It seems unreasonable to use the name "Sea of Japan". Therefore, I believe that the body of water between Korea and Japan should be described as the “East Sea” or at least with the simultaneous use of both names; “East Sea/Sea of Japan.”
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