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North-South Symposium Held

KCNA

    Pyongyang, February 25 (KCNA) -- A north-south symposium on the wrong designation of the East Sea of Korea as the Japanese Sea was held at the People's Palace of Culture Wednesday. Kang Man Gil, president of Sangji University of south Korea, made an address to be followed by a keynote report by Ho Jong Ho, chairman of the History Society of the DPRK.
    Speeches were made there.
    The reporter and speakers cited concrete facts to prove that the sea between Korea and Japan was named "East Sea of Korea" by the Koreans long before a country called Japan appeared on the Japanese islands and this designation has long been historically recognized by maps published at home and abroad and even by Japan.
    Japan's claim that the East Sea of Korea should be marked as the Japanese Sea is groundless sophism and a deception and mockery of the international community in view of common international practice that a sea should be named after a continent according to its geographical location and that a sea between a peninsula and an island should be named after the peninsula and an international principle that the principle of accepting the then record shall be observed as far as the nomenclature of controversial sea is concerned, they said, and continued:
    Originally, Japan called the Pacific waters off the east coast of Japan as the Japanese sea. But after the "Meiji Restoration" it began to call even its western waters Japanese sea as the Japanese imperialists' ambition and policy to invade Korea got pronounced in a phased way. After occupying Korea the Japanese imperialists registered the sea at the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) misusing its position as a suzerain state.
    As the Japanese imperialists' invasion of Korea was illegal and Korea was liberated with their defeat there was no ground for Japan to keep calling the East Sea of Korea the Japanese Sea. This designation, a leftover of old colonialism, must be abolished and the nomenclature of the East Sea of Korea should be restored.
    They expressed the conviction that the world conscience that loves justice and truth would recognize the wrong designation of the East Sea of Korea as the Japanese Sea, extend active support and solidarity to the Korean nation in its just struggle to do away with the leftover of colonialism in the designation of seas.
    A letter to the general secretary of the IHO was adopted at the symposium.
    Present at the symposium were personages in science, education, culture and other fields in the north and the south, teachers, researchers, officials concerned and working people from different social standings.