Cross-ocean Diplomacy
ATLANTA, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. state legislature took a highly symbolic step Tuesday supporting South Korea's campaign to promote the use of the "East Sea" to identify the waters between Korea and Japan.
The state's Senate unanimously passed a resolution describing the Korean Peninsula as "bound by its East and West Seas."
It notes South Korea is "one of the strongest allies and closest trading partners of the United States."
The resolution was sponsored by a Republican Sen. David Shafer, who has closely worked with Kim He-beom, South Korea's consul general in Atlanta.
The senator said the move was based on facts of South Korea's history and its relations with the U.S.
The resolution contains just an accurate description of the geographical circumstance of the peninsula and does not consider any international dispute on the naming issue, he told Yonhap News Agency.
South Koreans believe the water between Korea and Japan should be called the East Sea, although the Sea of Japan is still more popular in the international community as a legacy of Japan's imperialistic past.