Book Review: The National Atlas of Korea

Summary

The atlas reviewed here is, as its foreword indicates, a concise version of one with the same title published in 2007. Readers familiar with the political situation will wish to know what is meant by “Korea” in this context. The answer is that this is a South Korean publication and that most of the thematic maps therefore represent the South (the Republic of Korea) only; it is unlikely that the relevant information would have been available for the North. However, some of the physical maps show the whole peninsula.The total number of maps is about 380, with about 50 pages of explanatory text and a gazetteer. It appears that the concise version of the atlas must have been developed by reducing the size of most of the maps to a quarter of a page somewhat less than A3 in size, with the result that their scale is usually 1:5,000,000, and although well reproduced, they use a very small size of lettering. However, about 60 of the maps are of full‐page size, in particular a series of topographical maps of the whole peninsula at a scale of 1:500,000. Many readers may wonder why, uniquely, the quarter‐mile‐long island of Dokdo is favoured with a 1:10,000 map. The explanation – not stated in the Atlas – is that this remote island is also claimed by Japan (and this controversy, by the way, explains why the Korean Navy's largest warship is named after such a small island).