“East Sea” or “Ease Sea?”

Is it the “East Sea” or “Ease Sea?”

Because many errors can be found on the English web page of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Korea is humiliating itself before the international society.

On October 5, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries referred to the “East Sea” as the “Ease Sea” on its English web page.

Also, in the maritime policy section of the web page, it referred to “Kyungsangbuk-Do providence” instead of “Gyeongsangbuk-Do Province” when introducing the location of Dok-do.

There were also many misspelled proper nouns such as “Pusan Port” instead of “Busan Port” and “The Shiwha Lake” instead of “The Sihwa Lake.”

It even introduced “Busan” as “Buan” in some parts of its website.

Although the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has commented that “the web page is currently under the editorial supervision of a professional English web page administrator and a native speaker of English” in response to netizen Oh Yong-ung’s comments on September 23, the pages have still not been revised.

Oh said, “It gave me the impression that the ministry is too easy minded over this situation when the nation is struggling against Japan for the name of the East Sea.”

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com