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Map of Marco Polo's travels (UK, Emanuel Bowen(1944))

'The Society for East Sea' is a nonprofit academic organization established to promote and spread 'East Sea' in the international community. Since its establishment in 1994, it has maintained a firm position on the Dual Naming of the East Sea based on academic grounds and logic.

We are trying to spread the dual naming of the East Sea to academic dimensions by linking it with universal values ​​as a global citizen and educational definition as well as historical, social, and cultural aspects. We also actively contribute to the government's negotiations on naming the East Sea as experts and to present and advise opinions at the General Assembly of International Organizations.

What kind of organization is ‘The Society for East Sea’ and why is it created?

‘The Society for East Sea’ was established with the main purpose of dual naming of ‘East Sea’, the name of the sea between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, at the same time as Sea of ​​Japan in the international community. In 1992, the government first raised the issue of naming the East Sea to UNCSGN(United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names). Since then, the need to spread the naming of the East Sea internationally and systematically carry out academic research and projects necessary for it has been raised. That's why we came to organize this NGO in 1994.

The name 'East Sea' has already been called to Koreans for over 2,000 years, as it appears in the Gwanggaeto Daewangbi. However, after South Korea was forcibly annexed by Japan, it became known as the Sea of Japan or Japan Sea in 1929 when the IHO published international standards on the Limits of Oceans and Seas.

And shortly after South Korea joined the United Nations in 1991, the Korean government insisted on the international community that East Sea should be dual naming with Sea of Japan. Accordingly, ‘The Society for East Sea’ is engaged in activities to spread academic discussions and logic on dual naming of the ‘East Sea’ from an expert point of view.

「International Seminar on Sea Names」 in Virginia, USA, 2019

Major activities of ‘The Society for East Sea’

‘The Society for East Sea’ conducts research, publishing and academic activities related to naming in the East Sea. For example, we do research that reveals the history and legitimacy of the name 'East Sea' in the old map with the request of the government. In addition, we publishes academic reports and books on Naming of the East Sea and the Name of the Sea for various readers to promote the national policy and spread the naming of the East Sea. These publications are used when visiting international conferences, academic conferences, colloquium, international organizations, boards on geographical naming in each country, and companies that produce maps in the private sector.

The chairmans group and directors are engaged in various international activities, including participating in international conferences, workshops, and academic conferences related to geographical name. After founding NGO in 1994, until 2019, we held 9 domestic seminars, 25 international seminars, 4 workshops inviting American experts, and 3 workshops inviting Japanese experts, with the theme ‘geographical naming’, ‘naming the East Sea’, ‘sea name’.

The most important activity of the above activities is 「International Seminar on Sea Names」. Since 1994, we have invited world-renowned experts and scholars who are influential in determining international geographical names every year to discuss the logic of determining international geographic naming, the history of naming of the East Sea, and the marking method of geographic naming to realize social justice. In particular, since 2016, NAHF has been co-hosting these events. We run a website to make it easy to search for 381 papers published from the first international seminar(1994) to the 25th(2019). (www.eastsea1994.org)

Also, we are sending experts to international conferences related to geographical names every year. Standardization of geographical names is not only a promise of the name of the land within a country, but also a common promise and procedure for establishing international geographical names in a global society. The United Nations and other international organizations are making major decisions with experts from around the world every year for international standardization of geographical names. So we are sending experts to support the representatives of the government attending the general assembly of various international organizations that determine the geographical names. Representative international organizations are UNGEGN(United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names), IHO(International Hydrographic Organization), UN-GGIM(United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management), and International Cartographic Congress. In particular, at UNGEGN, Sungjae Choo, chairman of ‘The Society for East Sea’, served as rapporteur(2017~2019), and is currently serving as Vice-chair(2019~present). The convenor of Working Group on Evaluation and Implementation was taken over by Kiseok Lee, an adviser to our organization(2000~2012), and now Sungjae Choo is a convenor(2012~present).

The Direction of ‘The Society for East Sea’ in the Future

Over the past 30 years, ‘The Society for East Sea’ has made every effort to mark the naming of East Sea and actively participated in various fields. We are proud of the many achievements such as the increase in dual naming of the East Sea in major international maps, geography textbooks, and media. We have invited major experts from abroad related to geographical names to explain to them the necessity of dual naming of the East Sea. We will continue to carry out international activities to spread the name of the East Sea globally. And we think that we should support and advise the government's negotiation stages and processes to mark the naming of the East Sea and activate the human network with experts on geographical names. We are an academic organization of experts related to geographical names. Therefore, as an expert, we will continue to support the government's policy activities and develop the usefulness of the name 'East Sea' and the sea name in academic fields through international seminars.

Geographical names are entities that encompass history, society, culture, politics, psychology, legislation, logic, and philosophy beyond just geographical ones. Therefore, we will look at the value of the geographical name, the way and perspective of marking the name ‘East Sea’. Now, it is not difficult to use dual naming as well as to mark various geographical names on digital maps. Therefore, we will seek a new approach to raise awareness of the use of the name ‘East Sea’ in the international community. In the future, ‘The Society for East Sea’ will play a role in leading academic discussions on the use of the name of the East Sea and the use of dual naming in accordance with the change from analog to digital environment.