MBC apologizes for mislabeling 'Sea of Japan' on broadcast

Broadcast station MBC recently drew the ire of eagle-eyed viewers when they noticed that they had made a labeling error on the program, 'Let's Go Video Journey', where they accidentally named the body of water between Korea and Japan as the 'Sea of Japan' instead of 'East Sea'. East Sea is Korea's traditional name for the geographical landmark that extends to the east of the Korean peninsula.

In an era of new South Korean-Japanese tension, the mistake drew disapproving comments. "What is this, are you joking?" the furious viewers commented. "How could you not pick that up? Apologize immediately."

To add fuel to the fire, this is the second time the mistake had been committed by the editing team - last May, the program made the same exact error, using the 'Sea of Japan' instead of the 'East Sea'.

On the same day the criticism appeared, the producers of 'Let's Go Video Journey' posted an official apology to their homepage. "We used an incorrect map which named the East Sea as the Sea of Japan. We deeply apologize for not checking beforehand and catching the mistake," they said. "We will try our hardest to make sure this mistake never repeats itself. We apologize deeply once again. We are sorry."

The name of the sea has long been a point of contention between South Korea and Japan. While worldwide convention uses 'Sea of Japan', South Korea has long been adamant that 'East Sea' should be used instead.