When accessing the site, the South Korea section of the World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/korea-south), at approximately 6:32 PM, September 24th, 2022 in Korea time(GMT+9), I was able to find the statement “Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea”, “lowest point: Sea of Japan 0m”. This only mentions the name “Sea of Japan”, and “East Sea” is nowhere to be seen. Also, I am not stating part of the section where this particular sea is mentioned in the official CIA webpage, I am stating the two parts, which is all of the parts which mention this sea on the website, without omission of the statement.
The foundations of which I am insisting this may lead to diplomatic problems, resides within the official homepage of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (https://www.mofa.go.kr/eng/wpge/m_5435/contents.do). The true and official site of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs contains information on the historical backgrounds of the name “East Sea”, why the names Sea of Japan and East Sea should be used concurrently, and how the Korean government officially raised the issue previously to the international society. To be specific, how the International Hydrographic Organization Technical Resolution 1/1972 International Standardization of Geographical Names(1974) and the United Nations Resolution on the Standardization of Geographical Names III/20 Names of features beyond a single sovereignty(1977) clearly states of the reasons of concurrent use of name form, how “a policy of accepting only one or some of such names while excluding the rest would be inconsistent in principle as well as inexpedient in practice”, and how “Only technical reasons may sometimes make it necessary … to dispense with the use of certain names belonging to one language or another.” The Korea government has raised the issue at the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Also, I would like to emphasize, how big of an issue this is, since this issue occurred in a site, so publicly well-known and since this issue occurred specifically in the site of the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, of the United States of America. The influence the country has, and this agency has in the global world is vast- thus bringing more responsibility in every act it takes.
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