Hello, I'm Hyunseo Lee at CheongShim International Academy in Korea.

As a member of Dokdo Cyber Press, I am sending you an e-mail to correct  errors on your webtionary. I think especially the dictionary has a duty to inform many people about the word correctly. I want to deliver our position about legitimacy of the name " East Sea" and use of the name “East sea" from International society.

I'd appreciate it if you could read it , even if you have different opinion.

We are claiming different name for the sea between Korea and Japan. Korea is called "East sea" and Japan want to call " Sea of Japan". 

Taking into account the geographical traits of the waters, the international norms for establishing geographical names and the historical legitimacy the name East Sea holds, South Korea considers it proper to use both names used by each country while the two countries remain in disagreement on a common name for the sea they share.

The sea in question comprises an Exclusive Economic Zone and the territorial waters of four countries: South Korea, North Korea, Japan and Russia. As such, adopting a single designation named after the name of a specific country cannot be justified for waters shared by multiple countries and influenced by each of their sovereign authority.

Naming a geographical area shared by two or more countries is usually determined by an agreement between the countries involved. If an agreement cannot be reached, the general rule of international cartography is to concurrently notate each name individually endorsed by different countries involved. This rule is also confirmed through resolutions of the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names and the International Hydrographic Organization.

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  has officially approved of the name Sea of Japan, which is not exactly true. It is not the UN that uses the name Sea of Japan, but only its secretariat, a principal arm of the UN. Therefore, the secretariat using only the Sea of Japan does not represent the opinion of all 192 members of the UN.

Furthermore, the UN Secretariat uses only the Sea of Japan 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. 

We think we should follow international norms , thereby using both the East Sea and the Sea of Japan concurrently.

We hope to do is to restore the name East Sea after having been unable to inform the international society of its existence due to Korea’s unfortunate past.

As the above reasons, and South Korea position about this issue, you should change to the name of " Sea of Japan" to "East Sea".

We will continue explaining to the international society the legitimacy behind the concurrent use of the East Sea and the injustice in using only the Sea of Japan on the basis of objective facts and general principles of the international society.

Thanks for your reading & Hope your reply soon,

Hyunseo Lee