S. Korea requests U.S. military correct naming of waters between Korea, Japan

SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has requested the U.S. military rectify the name of waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan that it used in a press release to describe the venue for this week's trilateral maritime drills with the two Asian allies, a Seoul official said Thursday.

In the release Wednesday, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command used only the Japanese name for the body of waters, the "Sea of Japan," though Korea calls it the "East Sea." It previously referred to the sea as "the waters between Korea and Japan."

"We found that the command used the expression, the Sea of Japan, and that it still remains unchanged," Col. Lee Sung-jun, the spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a regular press briefing. "The South Korean side has demanded the U.S. correct it."

In a press release on a similar trilateral exercise in October last year, the U.S. command reportedly changed its initial reference to the waters as the Sea of Japan to the "waters between Korea and Japan" following a request by the South.

sshluck@yna.co.kr
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