Pyongyang, April 8 (KCNA) — Days ago, a deputy chief Cabinet secretary of Japan, at a recent press conference, insisted that “Sea of Japan” is the only official term internationally recognized, saying it is inappropriate to use the term East Sea.
This is a clear manifestation of the wild ambition for invading Korea, which is being pursued by the Japanese reactionaries seeking to turn whole Korea into their colony again while justifying the history of the Japanese imperialists’ invasion of Korea.
To know why the East Sea of Korea had been called “Sea of Japan”, it is necessary to scrutinize the crime-woven history of the Japanese imperialists who committed untold crimes against the Korean nation during their colonial rule over it.
After the “1868 Meiji Restoration”, the Japanese imperialists stepped up their moves for materializing their policy of occupying Korea as their colony. In 1929 the imperialists, by abusing their suzerainty, got the term “Sea of Japan” registered in the International Hydrography Organization, instead of the term East Sea of Korea. Finally, the Korean nation lost even the name of the sea they had used for thousands of years.
The gravity of the issue lies in Japan’s desperate moves to have the illegal term “Sea of Japan” recognized by the international community even after its defeat.
Japan advertises a map describing the East Sea of Korea as “Sea of Japan” on the Internet. Its authorities are insisting in the international arena that “Sea of Japan” is the term acknowledged by history and it has nothing to do with the past colonial rule.
However, the eastern sea of Korea is clearly termed the East Sea of Korea not only in “Samguksagi”, “Samgukyusa”, “History of Koryo Kingdom”, “Chronicles of the Feudal Joson Dynasty” and other classic documents of Korea but also in old geography books and maps of Japan and other countries.
The term East Sea of Korea is an entirely just one in the light of major international usage concerning the naming of seas, the principle of fidelity to historical truth, the custom of naming seas after continental countries, the geographical azimuth standards and the principle of getting rid of colonial vestiges.
If the term “Sea of Japan”, a leftover of Japanese imperialists’ colonialism, remains alive, it will only help justify the history of the Japanese fascists’ invasion of Korea and provide the present authorities of Japan with a plausible excuse to evade the atonement for the past crimes.
At present the Japanese reactionaries are busy with their military preparations. They frantically stage drills for retaking an island, while clamoring for using the term “Sea of Japan” and securing “dominium over Tok Island”.
This proves that Japan’s far-fetched assertions are prompted by its black-hearted design to invent pretexts for reinvasion.
The term “Sea of Japan” is a criminal one representing the history of the Japanese imperialists’ colonial rule, the outcome of Japan’s policy of militaristic expansion and the synonym for the imperialist aggression.
Today the whole Korean nation keeps keener eyes on Japan’s history distortion and its moves to seize others’ territory that have gone beyond the red line.
Japan must desist from the anachronistic history distortion and pursuance of territorial expansion. -0-
