Korea to attend IHO meeting in Monaco to promote use of East Sea

Published : Apr 14, 2017 - 13:06 Updated : Apr 14, 2017 - 13:06

South Korea will attend the International Hydrographic Organization meeting to be held later this month in Monaco to promote the use of "East Sea" in naming the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the foreign ministry said Friday.

South Korea will send a delegation consisting of 30 government officials and private-sector experts to the IHO's 19th general assembly to be held in Monaco from April 24-28, according to a ministry official.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Cho June-hyuck (Yonhap)

South Korean and Japanese delegates are expected to lock horns at the meeting over how to revise a global chart, titled "Limits of Oceans and Seas," also known as S-23, which at present refers to the region as only the Sea of Japan.

S-23, which serves as a guideline for drawing sea maps, was last revised in 1953. But discord over how to name the sea between the two neighbors has hampered the revision efforts.

South Korea has wanted East Sea and Sea of Japan to be written until an agreement is reached. Currently, the Sea of Japan is more widely recognized around the world, but a growing number of maps use East Sea along with the Japanese name, experts say.

The naming dispute was rekindled in the early 1990s when North and South Korea voiced their objections to the Japanese sea name at a UN conference.

Koreans claim that East Sea has been used for more than 2,000 years. But the name was not known internationally in modern times because the Korean Peninsula was under Japan's colonial rule from 1910-45. (Yonhap)