South Koreans want water called East Sea

SEOUL, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The "Sea of Japan" is a figment of Japanese imagination, a group of South Korean activities said in Seoul Thursday, adding the correct name is the "East Sea."

Prof. Seo Kyoung-duk runs an extensive promotion campaign to get the international media to change its identification of the body of water between South Korea and Japan. He enlisted the aid of South Korean pop singer Kim Chang-hoon and a volunteer organization, the Yonhap news service reported.

The group bought full-age ads in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal saying Tokyo is wrong about what it calls the sea.

"There is no 'Sea of Japan' in the world. It only exists in the thinking of the Japanese government in its attempts to distort the history," the ad reads in part.

Japan is lobbying international organizations to officially call the body of water "Sea of Japan," but South Korean activists presented centuries of maps and other information to prove it should be the "East Sea."