(image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a non-governmental organization, revealed yesterday that a quick type in the search engine Google (www.google.com) of the keywords “Dokdo,” “Liancourt Rocks,” and “Takeshima” will bring about search results pinned to the geographical location of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) and will indicate Daehanbong, the name of the west islet, as its highest geographical point.
This is a change from search results last year in which a search of “Dokdo” in November only resulted in the “Sea of Japan” and “Oki District, Shimane.”
Upon becoming aware of the omission, VANK, along with online users, lobbied to have the situation rectified.
At the time, the highest geographical point was not indicated. Park Gi-tae, VANK’s chief, said that Google had accepted VANK’s request to mark the location of Dokdo as “East Sea” along with Sea of Japan.
However, a search of the word “Dokdo” on Google in the U.S. still results in “Oki District, Shimane” as being the location of the islet.
In response, Park said that this may be due to pressure from Japanese authorities to have it edited in favor of their own perspective. “We plan to continue pressing Google until a full correction is in order,” said Park.
VANK plans to carry out a campaign to correct the status quo by joining hands with Korean Americans and Korean schools in America. Korean Americans can contribute by sending feedback to Google on search results.
H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)
