A deputy chief Cabinet secretary of Japan, at a recent press conference, said that "Sea of Japan" is the only official name recognized internationally, saying it is inappropriate to use the term East Sea.

The term is associated with the crime-ridden history of the Japanese imperialists who committed all manner of crimes after invading Korea.

After the "Meiji Restoration", the Japanese imperialists stepped up their moves to materialize their policy of occupying Korea as their colony step by step. In 1929, they got the term "Sea of Japan" registered in the International Hydrography Organization by abusing their suzerainty of colony, instead of the name “East Sea of Korea”, which had been used by the Korean nation for thousands of years.

The problem is that Japan is working desperately to have the illegal term "Sea of Japan" recognized by the international community, advocating its use even after its defeat.

Japan is advertising a map describing the East Sea of Korea as "Sea of Japan" on the Internet. Its authorities are insisting on the international arena that "Sea of Japan" is the term acknowledged by history and they have nothing to do with the past colonial rule.

However, the eastern sea of Korea is obviously termed the East Sea of Korea not only in "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", "History of the Three Kingdoms", "History of Koryo Kingdom", "Chronicles of the Feudal Joson Dynasty" and other classic documents of Korea but also in old geography books and maps of Japan and other countries, including the “Complete map of Asia (1794), “Rough sketch of the Japanese marginal sea” (1809) and “Picture of four guardians of Great Japan” (1872) .

The name of the East Sea of Korea is an entirely just one in the light of major international usage and principle concerning the naming of seas, the principle of fidelity to historical truth, the custom of naming seas after continental countries, the geographical azimuth standards and the principle of getting rid of colonial vestiges.

If the term "Sea of Japan", a leftover of Japanese imperialists' colonialism, remains alive, it will only help justify the history of the Japanese fascists' invasion of Korea and provide the present Japanese authorities with a plausible excuse to evade the atonement for the past crimes.

At present, Japan is busy with their military preparations to stage drills for retaking an island, while clamoring for using the term "Sea of Japan" and securing "dominium over Tok Islets".

This proves that Japan's far-fetched assertions are prompted by its black-hearted design to invent pretexts for reinvasion.

The term "Sea of Japan" is a criminal one representing the history of the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule, the outcome of Japan's militaristic expansion policy and the synonym for imperialist aggression.

Today, the whole Korean people keep keener eyes on Japan's history distortion and its moves to seize others' territory that have gone beyond the red line.

Japan must desist from anachronistic history distortion and territorial expansion moves.