1. The eleventh UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) will take place at the UN headquarters in New York from August 8 till 17. The government delegation from the Republic of Korea to the meeting will be led by Ambassador for standardization of geographical names Yoo Euy-sang and composed of officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Geographic Information Institute, the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency, and the Northeast Asian History Foundation.

2. The UNCSGN is an international meeting convened every five years for discussions on individual countries’ policies regarding the standardization of geographical names and geographical name marking systems.

3. The ROK delegations, after raising for the first time the issue regarding the usage of the name “East Sea” at the sixth UNCSGN in 1992, have since claimed that until an agreement is reached between the ROK and Japan, the names “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan” be used concurrently. At the forthcoming UNCSGN, the ROK will repeat that claim.

4. In addition, the ROK delegation will share with the other participants the ROK’s national report on the country’s ways of establishing and maintaining the usage of geographic names, the progress in the work of the Korean Committee on Marine Geographical Names (KCMGN), and the revised edition of the handbook on the standardization of marine geographical names, as well as the progress in the ROK’s efforts over the past five years in the standardization of geographical names.


* unofficial translation