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Professor Rails against Name Chinese Maps Use for Mt. Baekdu

Professor Rails against Name Chinese Maps Use for Mt. Baekdu

Posted October. 13, 2007 07:03,   

한국어

According to the data that the Foreign Ministry submitted to Grand National Party Representative Park Jin yesterday, 68 out of 70 maps published in China refer to Mt. Baekdu as “Changbaishan.” The other two have no reference about the mountain at all.

None of the maps name the mountain in English “Baitoushan,” while five maps used the name Changbaishan. About 65 maps do not mark the English name of the mountain.

Furthermore, 33 maps published before 2000 list Lake Cheonji as “Cheonji of Mt. Baekdu,” while 10 out of 37 maps published after 2000 list it as “Cheonji of Changbaishan,” and 27 use both names.

These references are also rampant on Internet search engines. According to Park, the list of outcomes for “Mt. Baekdu” is 1,710 pages long on Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), while that for “Changbaishan” is 53,900 pages. Google (www.google.com) lists 10,200 pages for “Mt. Baekdu” and 67,400 pages for “Changbaishan.”

Park said that China’s “Northeast Project” is influencing Chinese maps. China formed a Changbaishan cultural research association in 2000 that designated Mt. Baekdu as a “key birthplace of Chinese culture” and the “symbol of Northeast culture and spirit of Northeast Chinese people.” China may be trying to include the history of the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo and Balhae to its history in the process.

Woosuk University professor Cho Beob-jong, who majored in the history of the Goguryeo Kingdom and who has been incessantly criticizing China’s Northeast project, said, “What underlies the China’s Changbaishan culture theory is a sinister plan to absorb the history of eastern Inner Mongolia, far eastern Russia, and the Korean peninsula.”

He added, “Given the seriousness the matter, it is likely that China’s textbooks and publications might be assisting in that plan. We need to consider establishing a task force in the Foreign Ministry dedicated to correcting any entity that uses the incorrect name in reference to the East Sea, Dokdo islets, and Mt. Baekdu.”



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