Mount Paektu’s Cheonji crater lake (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — After facing harsh criticism for making use of a map that marks the entirety of Mount Paektu’s Cheonji crater lake in northern North Korea as Chinese territory in all of its products, Apple Inc. has corrected the error.
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a South Korean civic organization, recently found such an error on Apple maps available on the company’s iPhones, iPads and MacBooks, and started a movement to correct the error on July 12.
Under the border treaty signed between China and North Korea in 1962, North Korea occupies 54.5 percent of the lake and China owns the remaining 45.5 percent.
The northwestern part of Cheonji belongs to China and the southeastern part of it belongs to North Korea.
VANK sent a letter of protest to Apple saying, “Since Cheonji crater lake on Mount Paektu has a significant meaning and symbolism in Korean history, the fact that the whole of Cheonji is marked as Chinese territory should be corrected.”
VANK also increased pressure on Apple to correct the error by launching a global petition movement.
In response, Apple accepted VANK’s opinion and corrected the error on maps installed on its iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.
As of July 22, the new map installed on Apple products shows Cheonji crater lake divided into Chinese and North Korean territory.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
