PACOM Criticized for Using “Sea of Japan” In Statement About North Korean Missile Launch
The Sea of Japan/East Sea issue has come back up again:
Shortly after North Korea’s ballistic missile launch on Wednesday, the U.S. military issued a statement that may add to the anger of Koreans over the naming of the waters between the peninsula and Japan.
In a five-paragraph document posted on its website, the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), headquartered in Hawaii, confirmed the North’s firing of a missile, saying it flew nine minutes before falling into the “Sea of Japan.”
Almost simultaneously, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) here uploaded a statement on its own homepage with mostly the same content.
The only differences were the time, as PACOM’s version is based on Hawaii time and the USFK’s notes Korean standard time, and the name of the waters, which Koreans call the East Sea.
The USFK’s statement said the missile landed in “waters East of the Korean Peninsula.”
Some South Korean journalists stationed at the defense ministry’s press room complained about PACOM’s use of the Sea of Japan alone in the official document directly involving Korea and read by many people in the key regional ally. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but USFK admitted they modified the naming in their statement which makes sense since their statement is directed more towards a Korean audience. PACOM on the other hand makes statements directed towards a regional audience that includes Japan, so of course they are going to use the internationally recognized naming convention for the body of water between the two countries which is the Sea of Japan.
USFK has a record of being more PC in its news “reporting”. They still call 황사 Asian Dust. :hmm: If they were going to just copy/paste the PACOM report they should’ve just done so verbatim instead of encouraging these nubs to boo-hoo about an argument they’ve been losing for decades. It’s the Sea of Japan, deal with it. :beg:
The Korean maps in Hanson Field House at Camp Casey called it only ‘East Sea’. In July 2013, I sent an ICE comment to HFH and the response from Mrs. Paek was that “many mapmakers, cartographers, and international organizations recognize
both the East Sea and the Sea of Japan as appropriate and proper names on
maps. It appears that the East Sea has as much historical precedence as the
Sea of Japan and should be recognized as such.”
Not content, I sent a comment to the IMCOM Camp Casey Commander and the maps were removed immediately.
I forgot to send an email to Mrs. Paek thanking her for her assistance, so belatedly I did so today.
@Bob, your story makes me want to walk through HFH the next time I am on Camp Casey just to see if the map still has Sea of Japan on it or not. 😉
Heh you ICE’ed the maps? I’ve heard of some crazy ICE’s but that’s #1.
I ICE’ed the DMV at Yongsan (Kim); got my issue resolved but the heart of the complaint was the horrible way they ran that organization which wasn’t altered. 🙁
Knew someone who ICE’ed the KSB at Red Cloud claiming they weren’t washing the utensils and we’re “recycling” the side dishes. He wouldn’t eat there for 3 – 6 months afterwards because he figured the KG’s would’ve shared his name with them and mess with his food if they saw him in there. 😆
Lots of whining about the Sea of Japan.
Not a peep about the nearby Korea Strait.
Selective outrage.