Korean names picked for two Antarctic undersea features

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- Two Korean names have been picked for international use of undersea features near a South Korean conservation center in Antarctica, which will help strengthen the country's presence in the polar region, the government said Friday. The names for two undersea hills -- Gungpa and Ssangdungi -- in Antarctica were proposed and submitted by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration to a sub-committee on undersea feature names of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The GEBCO group picked the Korean names for the undersea features at a five-day meeting held from Monday in Beijing, along with two Korean names for two newly identified undersea canyons in the East Sea off South Korea's east coast. "The registration of Korean names for undersea features in the East Sea once again confirmed the country's determination to strengthen its control of the waters and to promote international use of the name East Sea," the ministry said in a press release. The name of the sea has long been a source of conflict between South Korea and Japan as the latter, too, promotes its own name of the sea, the Sea of Japan. The latest entries pushed up the total number of Korean names used to identify undersea features by the international community to 35, according to the ministry