S. Korea, Japan set to spar over East Sea name at IHO meeting

South Korea and Japan will be likely to collide this week over the name of the sea lying halfway between the two countries, a contentious issue in their checkered relationship, officials said Monday.

Seoul officials plan to ask the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to consider adopting the Korean name "East Sea" along with the "Sea of Japan" when the organization opened its five-day general meeting in Monaco last Monday to update its sea maps this year.

A South Korean delegation, led by Song Young-wan, director general of the International Organization Bureau at the ministry, left Saturday for Monaco. The team consists of officials from the foreign and fishery ministries as well as scholars from state-run research centers.

"We will never tolerate the sole use of Sea of Japan. The government position is that East Sea and Sea of Japan be used together, so we will make efforts to prevent the IHO from holding a vote on the issue. If the vote is held, we will pursue the goal of making member countries abstain," a senior Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.


The official said the prevailing sentiment of the member countries is to recognize the current use of only Sea of Japan, so should the vote take place, it would be disadvantageous to South Korea. A different Foreign Ministry official, speaking later to reporters, said the issue was unlikely to be put to a vote at this week's meeting since no document has been filed on the issue.

"Still, the government is not ruling out the possibility of the issue being put to a vote, as IHO regulations allow members to present urgent issues on an emergency basis as long as the other member nations consent," the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

South Korea has long campaigned for the adoption of the name East Sea for the waters that have been widely adopted as the Sea of Japan, since Japan registered it as the official name with the IHO in the early 1920s, when Korea was under Japan's colonial rule.

Korean historians say the sea's original name was the East Sea, but that the Sea of Japan was adopted due to Korea's colonization by Japan and the 1950-53 Korean War.

The IHO wants South Korea and Japan to settle the issue themselves.