동해 지리적 범위 사용 사례 및 정립 필요성

Abstract

This paper deals with the geographical scope of the East Sea introduced by major domestic institutions. The East Sea surrounded by South Korea, North Korea, Russia, Japan has a variety of marine resources, and is the very appropriate natural laboratory to study future global changes as a miniature ocean. However, there is a continuous conflict between Korea and Japan over the name of the East Sea because of the nature of international waters. So we need the active research achievements based on the exact geographic knowledge of the East Sea to promote the legitimacy of the East Sea in the international community. Nevertheless each domestic institution has a different way to define the southern border of the East Sea so that it showed a difference about linear distance of up to about 44 km. Also, they have defined the scope of East Sea not as the entire East Sea surrounded by South Korea, North Korea, Russia and Japan but as the jurisdiction of the Republic of Korea. It caused serious confusion about accurate statistical knowledge about East Sea such as area, volume, and mean water depth. Therefore, clear social consensus about the geographical scope of the East Sea would be required, there is also the need to institutionalize a legal order to spread it.