▲ A NASA satellite imagery content released by VANK on Aug. 14, 2026, shows only the name Sea of Japan for the body of water between South Korea and Japan. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) -- At least 10 major overseas institutions, including the U.S. Department of State and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), use exclusively the name "Sea of Japan" for the body of water between South Korea and Japan, historically called the East Sea, a nongovernmental organization in Seoul said Friday.

The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), which promotes South Korea and its history internationally online, pointed out the widespread use of the incorrect name for the East Sea after reviewing 10 foreign government agencies and international databases, which also included the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Britannica and National Geographic.

VANK argues that, with more than 1.2 billion people worldwide using generative artificial intelligence (AI), incorrect place names could spread indiscriminately if names used incorrectly by highly reputable institutions are incorporated into AI training data.

The U.S. state department's travel advisory page for South Korea only used the name Sea of Japan without mentioning the East Sea, while NASA's satellite imagery content also used only the incorrect name in text and maps describing the Korean Peninsula.

VANK raised concerns about the potential impact of such content, saying it is highly likely to appear at the top of search engine results because it comes from official government domains.

Errors and inconsistencies were also found in educational content and international organization databases.

In the case of Britannica Kids Student Edition, entries related to South Korea list East Sea alongside Sea of Japan, while entries concerning Japan only use the name promoted by Tokyo.

National Geographic Kids displays inconsistent labeling even on the same page, with the main text listing only Sea of Japan while an accompanying map includes East Sea alongside it, according to VANK.

AGROVOC, a multilingual agricultural thesaurus coordinated by the FAO, provides translations in more than 15 languages but omits East Sea in its English-language entries.

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