KCNA Commentary Condemns Japan's Distortion of History

Pyongyang, August 7 (KCNA) -- Japan's greed of the Korean nation's inviolable territory and waters astonishes the world people.

Shortly ago, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee openly posted on a website a map in which Tok Island is marked as Japan's territory and the East Sea of Korea as the "Japanese Sea".

The chief Cabinet secretary impudently justified the map, saying that Japan's dominium over "Takeshima" and its status in relation to the "Japanese Sea" has been put into consideration.

Truly baffling human imagination is the meanness of Japan which abuses even Olympics, symbol of peace, for its shameless territorial ambition.

Japan's assertion of "dominium over Tok Island" utterly unreasonable from the viewpoints of history, geography and international law and its persistent insistence on the designation of the "Japanese Sea" do not only stem from its geopolitical ambition for the Korean peninsula and reinvasion of the Continent.

It is part of its impudent moves for the distortion of history of aggression to justify the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in Korea in the past and guise Japan as a victim by misleading the international public opinion under the pretext of "territorial disputes".

The designation of the "Japanese Sea" reminds one of the bitter history of the Korean nation which had been trampled down by the Japanese imperialists and blood-stained crimes to be certainly liquidated.

As well known, the East Sea of Korea was first named by our ancestors who advanced into it before others, and its name has been widely used by the world people.

Samguksagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), old document of Korea, says that the name of the East Sea of Korea was used from B.C. 59 and its name was engraved on the monument to the Mausoleum of King Kwanggaeto which was erected in 414.

The name of Japan came into being in around A.D. 700. Therefore, it is very natural that the east sea of Korea is named the Korean Sea and the East Sea of Korea.

The sea between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago was marked as the "Korean Sea" and the "East Sea of Korea" in not only the old geography books and maps of various countries but also the old Japanese maps and books.

Even according to the international usage in which the name of the sea is marked on the basis of the continent and peninsula, the name of the East Sea is reasonable as it means the sea which is located east of the Korean peninsula.

The "Korean Sea" and the "East Sea of Korea", the sea of Korea both in name and in reality, had been distorted as the "Japanese Sea" since the Japanese imperialists' occupation of Korea after the fabrication of the "Ulsa Five-point Treaty" in 1905.

The Japanese imperialists marked the "Korean Sea" as the "Japanese Sea" in the maps used in Japan and registered it as the "Japanese Sea" in the International Hydrography Organization by using the position of Japan as a suzerain state.

The historical facts clearly go to prove that the name of the "Japanese Sea" is the outcome of the bloody colonial rule by the Japanese imperialists and their militaristic policy for expansion, and a synonym of aggression by imperialists.

The illegal designation of the "Japanese Sea" which had to be repealed along with the defeat of Japan, a legacy of the colonial era, is still in use now. It is a shame to the righteous international community.

All the Koreans and the international community should foil the Japanese reactionaries' unreasonable moves for "dominium over Tok Island" and designation of the "Japanese Sea" by staking the dignity and sovereignty of the Korean nation and the world justice and conscience. -0-