• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.63-93
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• 2023

This study aims to examine the history of naming the strait between the Yellow and East China Seas and the East Sea to suggest a consistent nomenclature and to demarcate the geographic region of the strait. Although the strait is internationally known as 'Korea Strait', it is commonly referred to as the 'South Sea' in Korean common usage. This review ultimately recommends the use of 'Korea Strait' as an appropriate geographical name for this area. To support this recommendation, the historical boundaries typically assigned to the Korea Strait were investigated. We also analyzed the evolution of geographical labels assigned to Korea Strait and to the Western and Eastern Channels (labels given to the two maritime areas surrounding Tsushima). Resources for this analysis included historic maps and charts, International Hydrographic Organization Special Publications (S-23), and maps published in the Ocean Science Journal (OSJ) and Journal of Oceanography (JO), which are two international journals representing Korean and Japanese sources, respectively, from 2005 to 2021. In these two international journals, the most frequently used names assigned to the strait of interest were Korea Strait (appearing 42.9% of OSJ maps, and 7.5% of JO maps), and Tsushima Strait (appearing 60.4% of JO maps, and 0% of OSJ maps). Other names were South Sea and Korea Strait/Tsushima Strait. On maps in the two reviewed journals, the boundaries of Korea Strait were defined explicitly or implicitly in five different ways: a broad region between the Yellow and East China Seas and Ulleung Basin (Type 1), the region between Ulleung Basin and Tsushima (Type 2), the western channel of the strait (Type 3-1), the eastern channel of the strait (Type 3-2), and both the western and eastern channels of the strait (Type 4). Overall, Type 1 was the most frequently used boundary, taking up 71.4% of OSJ and 60.4% of JO maps. Lastly, we suggest in this paper that the current flowing through Korea Strait from the East China Sea to the East Sea should be labeled the 'Korea Strait Warm Current' to indicate its full path through the strait. Currently, this current is internationally referred to as the 'Tsushima Warm Current', which does not link well to the commonly used geographic name of the strait.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.35-44
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• 2003

Considering possible legal and policy problems with regard to the Cheju Strait, a central issue is whether the Cheju Strait should be treated as Korean territorial sea or an international strait The claim that the strait is territorial sea has been based on the use of a straight baseline method of dermarcation With the use of straight baseline, Korea claims that the breadth of the Cheju Strait is only 20.7 miles at its narrowest point and therefore the strait becomes the territorial sea of Korea. The consideration cf marine pollution has weighed heavily in claiming the Cheju Strait as territorial sea. Pollution resulting from the accidents cf tankers caused by fire, collision, or stranding in the Cheju Strait and the Korea Strait would be enormous, affecting the entire coastal waters of the south coasts cf Korea's mainland and Japan's Tsushima Islands areas. Catastrophic pollution in the Cheju Strait could also come from the accidents cf large-size oil tankers passing through the Korea Strait from the Malacca Strait Although the Korean government considers the geographic and socioeconomic conditions sufficient to justify Korea's claim of the Cheju Strait as territorial sea, it believes that declaring it so would raise considerable legal conflicts with maritime states. In view of the legal difficulties and the need to meet the problems arising from the growing vessel traffic in the Cheju Strait, the sea lanes and traffic separation schemes may be considered an alternative to the internationalization of the Cheju Strait Even if the Korean government dose not do so, the regime of innocent passage should be applied to vessels passing through the Strait and should not suspend innocent passage through the Strait. Therefore, the Korean government needs to have a more legal, pragmatic, functional and managerial approach than a purely sovereign and selfish approach to the solution of legal matters of the Cheju strait For this purpose, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea would serve as a guide and also self-restraint and cooperative approaches would become norms governing the resolution of the law of the sea issues in the Cheju Strait.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.393-403
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• 2016

A steady, strong southward flow was observed in the lower layer beneath the Tsushima Warm Current in the deepest trough of the Korea Strait. Known as the Korea Strait Bottom Cold Water (KSBCW), this bottom current had a mean velocity of 24 cm/s and temperatures below 8–10℃. The direction of the bottom current was highly stable due to the topographic effects of the elongated trough. To determine the path of the southward bottom current, ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) data from 14 stations between 1999 and 2005 were examined. Persistent southward flows with average speeds of 4–10 cm/s were observed at only three places to the north of the strait where the bottom depths were 100–124 m. The collected data suggest a possible course of the southward bottom current along the southeast Korean coast before entering the deep trough of the Strait.

• Special Issue of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• 2013.12a
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• pp.47-49
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• 2013

According to the new Singapore Authority Rule(Sn.1/Cir293) which has taken effect from $1^{st}$ July, 2011 at 000hrs, all vessel crossing the Traffic Separation Scheme(TSS) and precautionary areas in Singapore Strait are recommended to display the night signals consisting of 3 all-around green lights in a vertical line. So, this paper presents methods for design of SINGAPORE STRAIT TRANSITION NIGHT SIGNAL.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.107-116
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• 1996

A shallow water numerical model is established to investigate the response of coastal water in the Korea Strait to typhoons that pass nearby the Korea Strait. Atmospheric pressure and wind by Fujita's formula (1952) and Miyazaki et al. (1961), respectively are used in the model. The model results show an agreement fair with the observation partially, but poor with the amplitude of the sea level variation. In particular, the discrepancy is larger in a typhoon passing through right side than that through left side of the Korea Strait. The model showes that the disagreement between the model and the observation can be caused by numerically unrealistic distributions of armospheric pressure and wind around the strait. In the Korea Strait the isostatic effects in the model were underestimated, whereas the wind fields were overestimated.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 1998

A relationship between sea level variations in the Korea Strait (the western and the eastern channels) and the Tokara Strait in the Kuroshio region is examined using daily-mean sea level data from 1966 to 1986. The seasonal variation of the sea level difference (SLD) between Izuhara and Pusan (the western channel) is most periodic: the positive anomalies appear from summer to autumn, and the negative anomalies from winter to spring year to year, whereas SLDs neither between Hakata and Izuhara (the eastern channel) nor between Naze and Nishinoomote (the Tokara Strait) show such a periodic variation. Much similarity has been found between SLDs in the eastern channel and the Tokara Strait, and in particular they were closely correlated in a special event of the Kuroshio region, such as a large meander of the Kuroshio. This paper shows that the periodic seasonal variation of the SLDs in the western channel should be less related to the Kuroshio region. This result also implies that the variation of SLD in the western channel is largely influenced by local factors, such as the bottom cold water in the western channel in summer, rather than from the Kuroshio region.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.9-12
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• 1995

The Korea Strait becomes deeper than 200 m from south to north in general except coastal area, whereas its southern part is shallower than 125 m except for a deep trough (Fig.1). The flow in the Korea Strait could be simplified as two layers (Isobe, 1995)； the Tsushima Warm Water in the upper layer and the Korea Strait Bottom Cold Water (KSBCW) in the lower layer (Fig.2). (omitted)

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.296-301
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• 1998

The physical and chemical characteristics were examined in the southern sea of Korea including the Cheju Strait, and the entrance of the Korea Strait in the period of May 30 to June 8, 1995. The results are as follows. Firstly, the variation ranges of the temperature and salinity at the Cheju Stratit during 24 hours observation were larger in the surface layer than that in the deep layers. Secondly, daily variations of nutrients show that total inorganic nitrogen, phosphate phosphorous, and silicate silicon concentration are higher at night than at day. Thirdly, water temperature and salinity distributions show highest values at the entrance of Korea Strait, which is thought to be influenced directly by Tsushima Warm Current, while they show the lowest values in Cheju Strait. This means that the surface waters in Korea Strait are greatly influenced from the entrance of Korea Strait and bottom waters is greatly influenced from Cheju Strait. Fourthly, nutrients distribution shows highest values in Korea Strait but dissolved oxygen shows lowest values in the area. These seem to be caused by the oxygen consumption used in the inorganization of nutrients to decompose organisms and the liquidation of nutrients.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2014

This study investigates spatial and temporal variations in the generation and propagation of internal tides around the Korea Strait using a three-dimensional high resolution model (Regional Ocean Modeling System; ROMS). The model results were verified through comparison with in-situ current measurements from an array of 12 acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) deployed in the Korea Strait. Fluxes and distributions of internal tidal energy were calculated using simulation results gathered in February and August. Our analyses reveal that energetic semidiurnal internal tides are generated in a region around the Korea Strait shelf break ($35.5^{\circ}N$, $130^{\circ}{\sim}130.5^{\circ}E$), where the strong cross-slope semidiurnal barotropic tidal currents interact with a sudden topographical change. The semidiurnal internal tidal energy generated in summer displays values about twice as large as values in winter. Propagation of semidiurnal internal tides also reveals seasonal variability. In February, most of the semidiurnal internal tides propagate only into the open basin of the East Sea due to weak stratification in the Korea Strait, which inhibits their southwestward propagation. In August, they propagate southwestward to $35.2^{\circ}N$ along the western channel of the Korea Strait because of strong stratification. In addition, semidiurnal internal tides generated in a region west of Tsushima Island are found to propagate to the coast of Busan. This can be explained by the intensified stratification due to the strong intrusion of bottom cold water in the western channel of the Korea Strait during summer.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2003

A time-series sediment trap was deployed at a depth of 1034 m in the eastern Bransfield Strait from December 25, 1998 to December 24, 1999. Particle fluxes showed large seasonal variation; about 99% of the annual total mass flux (49 g m/sup -2/) was collected during the austral summer and fall (January-March). Settling particles consisted primarily of biogenic silica, organic carbon, calcium carbonate, and lithogenic material. Biogenic silica and lithogenic material predominated settling particles, comprising 36% and 30% of the total mass flux, respectively, followed by organic carbon, 11% and calcium carbonate, merely 0.6%. The annual organic carbon flux was 5.4 g C m/sup -2/ at 1000 m in the eastern Bransfield Strait, which is greater than the central Strait flux. The relatively lower flux of organic carbon in the central Bransfield Strait may be caused by a stronger surface current in this region. Organic carbon flux estimates in the eastern Bransfield Strait are the highest in the Southern Ocean, perhaps because of the fast sinking of fecal pellets, which leads to less decomposition of organic material in the water column. Approximately 5.8% of the organic carbon produced on the surface in the eastern Bransfield Strait is exported down to 1000 m; this percentage exceeds the maximum EF/sub 1000/ values observed in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. The eastern Bransfield Strait appears to be the most important site of organic carbon export to the deep sea in the Southern Ocean.