34°35′58″N 129°47′48″E / 34.59944°N 129.79667°E / 34.59944; 129.79667
30-911: The Korea Strait is a sea passage in East Asia between the Korean Peninsula and Japan . It connects the East China Sea , the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean . The strait is split by Tsushima Island into two parts: the Western Channel, and the Tsushima Strait or Eastern Channel. It is economically important, as many shipping lanes pass through the strait, and both Japan and South Korea allow free passage through it. In ancient times, both Buddhism and Mongol invaders passed over
60-591: A Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel or bridge, similar to the Channel Tunnel running under the English Channel between France and the United Kingdom , has been discussed for decades. Strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or two water basins. While the landform generally constricts the flow, the surface water still flows, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and through
90-566: A fleet to Tsushima in 1419 for the suppression of Wokou activity. Korea subsequently agreed to grant the Japanese limited trading privileges. The Battle of Tsushima, fought between the Japanese and Russian navies on May 27 and May 28, 1905, took place in the Tsushima Strait part of the Korea Strait, east of the north part of Tsushima and due north of Iki Island. The Russian fleet was destroyed by
120-517: A typographic error. In historical records. It was said to have bigger fields than Tsukaikoku [ ja ; simple ] and a population three times larger. There is a museum dedicated to the country located in Nagasaki . The islands were organized as Iki Province under the Ritsuryō reforms in the latter half of the seventh century, and the name Iki-no-kuni appears on wooden markers found in
150-626: Is Takenotsuji ( 岳ノ辻 ) , a weakly curved peak with a highest elevation at 212.9 metres (698 ft) above sea level. The average height of the land surface is 100 meters above sea level. The archipelago is approximately 20 kilometres (11 nmi) north-northeast of the Kyushu coast at its closest point and southeast of the Tsushima Islands. The Iki Islands have been inhabited since the Japanese Paleolithic era, and numerous artifacts from
180-543: Is about 200 km (120 mi) wide and averages about 90 to 100 meters (300 ft) deep. Tsushima Island divides the Korea Strait into the western channel and the Tsushima Strait. The western channel is deeper (up to 227 meters) and narrower than the Tsushima Strait. A branch of the Kuroshio Current passes through the strait. Its warm branch is sometimes called the Tsushima Current. Originating along
210-533: Is made of a country called “Iki”, (一支国, Iki-koku), located on an archipelago east of the Korean Peninsula . Archaeologists have tentatively identified this with the large Yayoi period settlement of Harunotsuji , one of the largest to have been discovered in Japan, where artifacts uncovered indicate a close contact with the Japanese islands and the Asian mainland. It is sometimes referred to as "Idaikoku ( 一大国 ) ", which may be
240-401: Is typically reserved for much larger, wider features of the marine environment. There are exceptions, with straits being called canals; Pearse Canal , for example. Straits are the converse of isthmuses . That is, while a strait lies between two land masses and connects two large areas of ocean, an isthmus lies between two areas of ocean and connects two large land masses. Some straits have
270-476: The Palaeoloxodon naumanni are believed to have spread into Japan. Historically, these narrows served as a highway for high risk voyages. The shortest distance between Busan , South Korea, and Tsushima Island is about 50 km, as is the shortest distance from Tsushima to Iki Island , Japan. In the 6th century, Buddhism ( Mahāyāna Buddhism ) was transmitted by Baekje people to the easternmost Japan of
300-643: The Emperor Kinmei 's era over this strait ( See also : East Asian Buddhism and Buddhism in Japan ). A joint Mongol-Korea fleet crossed this strait and attempted to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281. The force severely ravaged the Tsushima Island on the way to Japan but failed to defeat Japan. After the Mongolian invasion ravaged Tsushima, it became a base of the Wokou (Japanese pirates). The Korean Joseon Dynasty sent
330-569: The Iki Archipelago ( 壱岐諸島 , Iki-shotō ) , is an archipelago in the Tsushima Strait , which is administered as the city of Iki in Nagasaki Prefecture , Japan . The islands have a total area of 138.46 square kilometres (53.46 sq mi) with a total population of 28,008. Only four (4) of the twenty-three (23) named islands are permanently inhabited. Together with the neighboring islands of Tsushima , they are collectively within
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#1732837904379360-670: The Jōmon , Yayoi and Kofun periods have been found by archaeologists, indicating continuous human occupation and activity. In the Kojiki Iki island is one of the islands Izanagi and Izanami gave birth to. It is the fifthborn. In the Chinese Wèizhì Wōrén chuán (Japanese 魏志倭人伝, Gishi Wajinden ), part of the Records of the Three Kingdoms dating from the third century, mention
390-902: The Muromachi period , the islands were a main base for the Japanese Wokou pirates, who plundered coastal settlements in Korea and China. Following the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in the Edo period , the islands came under the rule of Hirado Domain . Following the Meiji Restoration , the islands became part of "Hirado Prefecture" from 1871, which then became part of Nagasaki Prefecture. The islands were fortified with numerous coastal artillery batteries during World War II , but did not experience any combat. Remains of these fortifications can be found on
420-718: The Pleistocene glacial cycles, the Korea Strait and the Bering Straits , and the Yellow Sea were often narrowed and the Japanese islands may at times have been connected to the Eurasian Continent through the Korean Peninsula or Sakhalin . At times, the Sea of Japan was said to be a frozen inner lake due to the lack of warm Tsushima Current and various plants and large animals, such as
450-462: The Suez Canal . Although rivers and canals often provide passage between two large lakes, and these seem to suit the formal definition of strait, they are not usually referred to as such. Rivers and often canals, generally have a directional flow tied to changes in elevation, whereas straits often are free flowing in either direction or switch direction, maintaining the same elevation. The term strait
480-455: The 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima . It is an expansion pack for the game with the main game taking place on Tsushima . Iki Island has ferry terminals in Ashibe, Ishida and Gōnoura, which connect Iki to mainland Japan such as Fukuoka and Kitakyushu . Located on the east coast Iki Airport connects the island to Nagasaki Airport in Nagasaki . The Japan National Route 382 connects
510-507: The Japanese islands this current passes through the Sea of Japan then divides along either shore of Sakhalin Island , eventually flowing into the northern Pacific Ocean via the strait north of Hokkaidō and into the Sea of Okhotsk north of Sakhalin Island near Vladivostok . The water-mass characteristics vary widely because of the low-salinity waters of the southeast coasts of Korea and China. Numerous international shipping lanes pass through
540-521: The Japanese. The Battle of Korea Strait was a naval battle fought on the first day of the Korean War , 25–26 June 1950, between the navies of South Korea and North Korea . A North Korean troop transport carrying hundreds of soldiers attempted to land its cargo near Busan but was encountered by a South Korean patrol ship and sunk. It was one of the first surface actions of the war and resulted in an important South Korean victory. The possibility of
570-520: The Korean mainland. Ferries connecting Busan and Japanese cities with ports in China also traverse the strait. Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles (5.6 km) into the strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear -armed United States Navy warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory. During
600-482: The borders of the Iki–Tsushima Quasi-National Park . The Iki Islands are volcanic in origin: they are the exposed and eroded basaltic summit of a massive Quaternary stratovolcano last active over 600,000 years ago. Iki Island is slightly oval in shape, and measures approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) from north-south and 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from east-west. The highest elevation
630-677: The imperial capital of Nara . During the Heian period , the island was attacked by Jurchen pirates in the Toi invasion of 1019. Afterwards, the islands came under the rule of the Matsura clan , who developed trade and commercial relations between Goryeo in Korea, Tsushima, Iki and Kyushu. However, the islands were again devastated by the Kamakura period Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 during which time many of its inhabitants were slaughtered. Throughout
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#1732837904379660-568: The island of Wakamiyajima, north of the main Iki Island. On November 18, 1948, Lt. William Downham, from the USAF 36th Fighter Group stationed at Ashiya Air Field , experienced engine failure in his North American P-51 Mustang while patrolling the Korea Strait between Japan and the Korean Peninsula . He successfully parachuted onto Iki Island. In the 1960s and 1970s, in particularly the town of Iki ,
690-699: The islanders were notorious for overfishing, but blamed declining catches on the local species of whales and dolphins. In 1977, the local fishermen invited television companies to film the mass slaughter of dolphins. In response, activists heavily condemned the fishermen's acts of killing the dolphins. In view of the already endangered Japanese amberjack , the local town government banned large-scale, commercial fishing of Japanese amberjack after 1982. A group of small scale fishermen in 2016 were reported as fighting back against this overfishing. As of 2018 fishermen are protesting against large vessels from Mainland Japan overfishing around Iki island. The island features in
720-466: The potential to generate significant tidal power using tidal stream turbines . Tides are more predictable than wave power or wind power . The Pentland Firth (a strait) may be capable of generating 10 GW . Cook Strait in New Zealand may be capable of generating 5.6 GW even though the total energy available in the flow is 15 GW. Straits used for international navigation through
750-442: The strait in both directions. In some straits there may be a dominant directional current through the strait. Most commonly, it is a narrowing channel that lies between two land masses . Some straits are not navigable, for example because they are either too narrow or too shallow, or because of an unnavigable reef or archipelago . Straits are also known to be loci for sediment accumulation. Usually, sand-size deposits occur on both
780-571: The strait to reach Japan. More recently, it was the site of the 1950 Battle of Korea Strait during the Korean War. A tunnel running underneath the strait connecting Japan and Korea, the Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel , has been proposed to connect the two countries. To the north, the Korea Strait is bounded by the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula . And to the south, it by the southwestern Japanese islands of Kyūshū and Honshū . It
810-563: The strait, including those carrying much of the traffic bound for the ports of southern South Korea. Both South Korea and Japan have restricted their territorial claims in the strait to 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) from shore, so as to permit free passage through it. Passenger ferries travel numerous routes across the strait. Commercial ferries run from South Korean Busan , Geoje to Japanese ports including Fukuoka , Tsushima , Shimonoseki , and Hiroshima . Ferries also connect Tsushima Island with Fukuoka, and South Korea's Jeju Island with
840-423: The territorial sea between one part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone and another part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone are subject to the legal regime of transit passage ( Strait of Gibraltar , Dover Strait , Strait of Hormuz ). The regime of innocent passage applies in straits used for international navigation (1) that connect a part of high seas or an exclusive economic zone with
870-635: The territorial sea of a coastal nation ( Straits of Tiran , Strait of Juan de Fuca , Strait of Baltiysk ) and (2) in straits formed by an island of a state bordering the strait and its mainland if there exists seaward of the island a route through the high seas or through an exclusive economic zone of similar convenience with respect to navigational and hydrographical characteristics ( Strait of Messina , Pentland Firth ). There may be no suspension of innocent passage through such straits. [REDACTED] Media related to Straits at Wikimedia Commons Iki Island Iki Island ( 壱岐島 , Iki-no-shima ) , or
900-574: The two opposite strait exits, forming subaqueous fans or deltas . The terms channel , pass , or passage can be synonymous and used interchangeably with strait , although each is sometimes differentiated with varying senses. In Scotland, firth or Kyle are also sometimes used as synonyms for strait. Many straits are economically important. Straits can be important shipping routes and wars have been fought for control of them. Numerous artificial channels, called canals , have been constructed to connect two oceans or seas over land, such as
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