"Will the East Sea-Japan Sea dispute finally end?" International Hydrographic Organization to use 'unique numbers' instead of sea names

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\r\n[The Financial News]  A digital standard that identifies seas with unique numbers rather than place names has been formally adopted by the international community, raising expectations that the long-running dispute over the East Sea and the Sea of Japan may be resolved.
According to Yonhap News Agency on the 25th, the digital dataset "S-130" was formally adopted at the 4th International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) General Assembly, held in Monaco from the 19th to the 23rd.
S-130 is a digital standard that labels sea areas with unique numbers instead of place names. It uses a number-based identification system in advance, making it suitable for electronic navigation and geographic information systems.
The adoption is the result of years of active efforts by the South Korean government to respond to the situation in which the existing standard nautical chart collection, "S-23," listed only the Sea of Japan. In 1929, during the Japanese colonial period, the IHO compiled S-23 and registered the East Sea as the "Sea of Japan." Since then, the government has held consultations with Japan over dual naming, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
Experts say the adoption is significant because, although it does not fully replace single-name usage with dual naming, future digital standards will no longer use sea names themselves.
In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Park Chang-geon, a professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at Kookmin University, said, "The goal should be to design a structure in which the East Sea continues to be exposed." He added, "Rather than focusing on dual naming through diplomatic persuasion, the key task is to make the East Sea naturally visible through data structures and standard rules."
Park also advised that "cooperation with global platforms is essential, since the real impact of place-name labeling is determined on services such as Google Maps and marine information systems."
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security@fnnews.com Park Gyeong-ho Reporter