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South Korean President Moon Jae-in looks at the "Royaume de Coree" at the Spanish senate library in Madrid on Thursday. (Yonhap News)

During a state visit to Spain, South Korean President Moon Jae-in had a chance to examine an old map that presents the island of Dokdo as being Korean territory. Moon saw the map, called "Royaume de Coree" (Kingdom of Korea) while visiting the Spanish senate library, in Madrid, on Thursday.

"This is a map of the Korean Peninsula from the 1730s. I think this is probably the record that will be most interesting to Koreans," said Angel Gonzalez, head of the senate library, while showing Moon the map.

"Royaume de Coree" is part of an atlas of the Qing empire that depicts China and its surrounding areas. The atlas was produced by 18th century French geographer and cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, who drew upon the Kangxi imperial atlas of China. The map is in the collection of the Spanish senate library.

The "Royaume de Coree" at the Spanish Senate Library in Madrid (Yonhap News)

"Royaume de Coree" is regarded as the oldest extant map of Joseon, as Korea was known at the time, a Westerner made. The place names on the map reflect the pronunciation of Chinese characters.

Dokdo, a South Korean island also claimed by Japan, is labeled as Tchian Chan Tao, or Qian Shan Dao in China's current Pinyin style of Romanization. The Chinese characters used for Dokdo at the time, 于山島 (Yu Shan Dao), were misread as 千山島 (Qian Shan Dao).

The map clearly shows that both Ulleungdo and Usando (the Korean reading of Yu Shan Dao, the old name of Dokdo) were Korean territory, said Blue House spokesperson Park Kyung-mi.

"This is an invaluable document that shows that Dokdo is Korean territory," said Moon, who removed his glasses to take a closer look at the map.

"Thanks for showing me such a precious document," he said.

Moon visited the library with Pilar Llop Cuenca, president of Spain's senate, and Meritxell Batet, speaker of Spain's Congress of Deputies, after delivering an address to both houses of parliament.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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