[Anchor]

US President Donald Trump has ordered a name change for Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, instructing that it be called Lake America. The move appears intended to provoke Canada, which is currently locked in a tariff war with the US, and Trump added that even ocean names could be changed next.

Correspondent Jeon Byeong-nam reports from Washington.

[Reporter]

On the 27th local time, US President Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, which is shared by the US and Canada, to "Lake America."

[Donald Trump / US President: Lake Ontario is no more. It is Lake America. Well, now we have a lake.]

As trade disputes with Canada intensified, he previously threatened to change the name of Lake Ontario and has now followed through on that threat.

[Donald Trump / US President: Canada has taken advantage of the US in trade for a long time. They don't pay a dime, yet they want to be treated as if they were a state of the US.]

However, this lake name change applies only to the US government's official geographic naming system and cannot be enforced upon Canada.

[Ruud Bergen / Canadian: It's nonsense. It can never be 'Lake America.' It is 'Lake Ontario.']

[Tom Silver / American: We share the lake with Canada. There is no reason whatsoever to change the name.]

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed the move, stating, "The name Lake Ontario goes back over 400 years, older than the American Declaration of Independence," and adding, "It will continue to be called Lake Ontario."

The Premier of Ontario, Canada, where Lake Ontario is located, escalated criticisms against Trump.

[Doug Ford / Premier of Ontario, Canada: President Trump is the kind of guy who will steal your allowance on the first day, steal your hat on the second day, and steal your sneakers on the third day.]

Last year, after pressuring Mexico and emphasizing America First by renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," Trump banned a reporter from the Associated Press from White House events after the news outlet continued using the traditional name.

Trump added that what is needed now is an ocean, suggesting that the names of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans could potentially be changed as well.

(Camera: Park Eun-ha, Video Editing: Cho Mu-hwan, Design: Park Hye-jin)