Tangled Relationships - Observer Research Foundation

ORF Occasional Paper
between Japan and Korea as the East Sea. The name naturally creates great
deal of consternation in Korea. It was only in 1928, when the International
Hydrographic Organisation's (IHO) 'Limits of Oceans and Seas' officially
christened the 'Sea of Japan', which eventually influenced other
international documents. Korea believes the IHO only took into account
Japanese views when deciding on the name, as Korea had lost effective
control of its foreign policy during Japanese occupation.
South Korea argues that "East Sea", a common name found on ancient
European maps, should be used instead of or at least concurrently with Sea
of Japan. Japan claims that Western countries named it the Sea of Japan
prior to 1860, before the growth of Japanese influence over Korea after the
1894 outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War. In 2012 during the Monaco
Conference of the IHO, South Korea mounted a diplomatic offensive to
change the status quo. South Korea did derive some consolation with the
Conference deciding to examine the matter in 2017.
Non-nuclear Japan
For the first time in 34 years, Japan's Diet revised the Atomic Energy Basic
Act in June 2012 by including national security among its goals. In separate
legislation, the Diet also deleted a phrase that had thus far confined the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's activities to “peaceful purposes”.
This triggered widespread uproar in South Korea, particularly in the media.
The Korea Times in an editorial said that Japan, hitherto a 'virtual nuclear
power', had taken the first step towards becoming a 'real' one by enacting
the legislation. Korean media further pointed out that Japan has a sufficient
stockpile of weapons grade material technological prowess to quickly
fabricate roughly 6,000 Hiroshima-level bombs. Korea knows that Japan
was one of the last nations to sign the NPT in 1970 and only ratified it six
16
www.orfonline.org