Anchor: A petition demanding the recognition of the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan as the East Sea has collected more than 80-thousand signatures in a month on a civil petition Web site operated by the White House. Kim In-kyung files this report.

Report: As of Sunday local time, 83-thousand people signed the petition, which argues that the singular label “Sea of Japan” falsely represents history. The petition calls for the dual use of both East Sea and Sea of Japan to identify the body of water. This is the highest number among the 120 or so petitions that are on the White House portal called “We the People.” The figure is almost double the 46-thousand signatures collected for the next most popular petition, which is a plea to abolish the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The petition was submitted March 22nd by a Korean-American association in the state of Virginia. It reads that Americans are teaching their children a false history that was manipulated by invaders who attacked Pearl Harbor, a reference to the Japanese. It says the children have a right to learn the true history.

The White House says it can give an official response to petitions on the “We the People” site that are signed by more than 25-thousand people in less than 30 days.

Aside from the East Sea petition, a separate petition on the White House site is calling for the U.S. to withdraw its support for the name Sea of Japan at the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). By Sunday, 45-hundred people had signed that petition.

In opposition, some Japanese Americans have begun collecting signatures for a petition on the “We the People” site that calls for the sole use of the name Sea of Japan. But only 17-thousand-and-700 people had signed on by Sunday.

Meanwhile, Korean-American associations have recently mailed a petition to the IHO containing the signatures of 24-thousand people calling for the dual use of the names East Sea and the Sea of Japan. Representatives of Korean-American associations have also been meeting officials at the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and the Congress requesting the use of both names or the exclusive use of the name East Sea.

The general assembly of the IHO will open Monday in Monaco, at which members will decide whether to use East Sea as a dual name in the revised edition of an IHO publication that records the designations and boundaries of oceans and seas worldwide.

Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.