SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — After the World Health Organization (WHO) omitted Dokdo and Ulleung Island on a recent map of Korea, the agency has been met with strong complaints from a Korean civic group to correct its mistake.
However, for more than two months, it has refused to change the map, even with an international petition calling for the WHO to take action.
Dokdo, a pair of rocky islets in the East Sea whose sovereignty has been consistently claimed by Japan, lies some 90 kilometers east of Ulleung Island.
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a cyber diplomacy organization, discovered an error on a map found on the WHO website on March 7.
Dokdo and Ulleung islands were included on a Japanese map, not Korean. VANK immediately asked the WHO to correct the map, and filed an official complaint.
Furthermore, one month later, VANK raised the issue on change.org, the world’s largest petition platform, under the title “WHO, who is it for?”
However, the WHO has still not corrected the map, with no response as of Thursday, 67 days later, VANK said.
When one clicks on ‘Korea’ in the national information services from the site’s main menu, Dokdo and Ulleung islands are still omitted from the South Korean map.
On another page where information about Japan is shown, the two islands are indicated as Japanese territory. The mistake could misguide others to think that Dokdo and Ulleung islands are Japanese islands, not Korean.
VANK has launched a protest campaign again to pressure the WHO, which has yet to even acknowledge the error.
Image Credit: VANK / Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism / Yonhap / photonews@koreabizwire.com
