Thai Airways In-Flight Seat Screen Map Service (screenshot from Professor Seo Kyoung-Duk’s social media post)
SEOUL, March 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Several Southeast Asian airlines have come under fire for referring to Dokdo, a South Korean territory, as ‘Liancourt Rocks’ on in-flight map services. The term, originating from the name of a French whaling ship, is often used by Japan in an effort to undermine South Korea’s sovereignty claims.
Seo Kyoung-Duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University and well-known advocate for correcting historical inaccuracies related to Korea, raised the issue on social media Monday. “Thanks to reports from netizens, we discovered distorted naming of Dokdo on airlines such as Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines,” he wrote.
Seo emphasized that the problem extends beyond airline maps, pointing to Google Maps as a major concern. “In South Korea, the islets are marked as Dokdo; in Japan, they appear as Takeshima. But in most other countries, Google Maps labels them as ‘Liancourt Rocks.’ This is what foreign users reference most, and it urgently needs correction,” he said.
This is not the first time the issue has surfaced. In March 2023, the Major League Baseball (MLB) official website sparked backlash when it displayed Dokdo as ‘Liancourt Rocks’ and the East Sea as ‘Sea of Japan’ on a map introducing Japan. Similarly, in 2019, several South Korean public institutions came under scrutiny for mistakenly using the term ‘Liancourt Rocks’ and failing to correct it.
The latest controversy highlights ongoing tensions over international representations of Dokdo, as South Korea continues efforts to assert its sovereignty and correct global mislabeling.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
