Pyongyang, August 30 (KCNA) -- The U.S. in a recent letter to the International Hydrographic Organization clarified its official stand that the East Sea of Korea should be marked as "Japan Sea."

Minju Joson Tuesday in a bylined commentary terms it a blatant challenge to the sovereignty of the Korean nation.

It says:

It is quite illogical for the U.S. to interfere in disputes over the designation of the East Sea of Korea.

It has been marked as "Japan Sea" since the Japanese imperialists illegally occupied Korea and enforced a colonial rule over it. They not only occupied Korea but deprived it of its sea and renamed it theirs.

After Korea put an end to Japan's colonial rule and achieved its independence, it should have taken back the original name of the East Sea of Korea. This is a main principle in international relations and it also stands to reason from a logical point of view.

Nevertheless, the U.S. has patronized Japan's brigandish assertion on "Japan Sea" in a bid to attain a sinister intention.

Lurking behind the above-said assertion is Japan's ambition to stage a militarist comeback. U.S. intention is to fan up war hysteria of the Japanese reactionaries who are buoyed by ambition for militarist overseas expansion and drag them more deeply in its strategy for domination over Asia.

Japan is miscalculated if it thinks it can do anything as it pleases backed by the U.S.

"Japan Sea" did not exist in the past and will never exist in the future, either.

There exits only East Sea of Korea on the earth.

The Korean people will protect their inviolable sea to the last and never make any compromise over the matter.