By Kim Tae-gyu



A U.S. state agency's recent use of both Dokdo and Takeshima as names for Korea's easternmost islets is creating a diplomatic stir here.



The United States Congressional Research Service (CRS) was found to have used both the Korean and Japanese names in various reports over the past year.



"This is very serious because an official institution of the U.S. has adopted the use of Takeshima. Japan could encourage other countries to follow suit based on the CRS case," said Park Gi-tae, the founder of the Voluntary Agency Network for Korea (VANK).



"Seoul should pull out all the stops to urge the CRS to drop the use of Takeshima. Washington is required to understand that it may be condoning the rise of imperialist Japan as the latter forcibly took over Dokdo just ahead of annexing Korea in 1910."



Park was also concerned that Japan might leverage the U.S. maps at issue to achieving its goal of taking the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice. In the belief that Japan's claim to Dokdo has no legal standing, Korea has refused to participate in any such move.



VANK is a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting a positive image of Korea, mainly through asking foreign Web sites or agencies to correct false data on the country.



Prof. Seo Kyung-duk at Sungshin Women's University, known as a public relations expert in promoting Korean culture, concurred.



"It simply does not make sense. I suspect that Japanese lobbies might have been at work here. We have to come up with sophisticated strategies to stop them right away," Seo said by telephone.



Located approximately 90 kilometers east of Korea's Ulleung Island and some 160 kilometers northwest of Japan's Oki Island, Dokdo is a set of volcanic outcrops, which Tokyo has been claiming as its territory.



It is now under the strict control of Seoul with maritime police officers stationed there, but Japan has refused to stop asserting sovereignty over the small islets, which are rich in fishery resources and minerals.



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and top lieutenants of the ultra-nationalistic leader have repeatedly voiced ownership over Dokdo so as to make the hot-button topic one of the main bones of contention between the neighboring countries.



The CRS reports chilled the euphoria of Koreans, who had successfully persuaded many U.S. state legislatures to use both the "East Sea" and "Sea of Japan" for the body of water between Korea and Japan.



The former is the Korean name for the sea while the latter is the Japanese one.



"The controversies on the sea's name are totally different from those on Dokdo. The island is our territory and Japan tries to violate it. From the perspective of Koreans, the U.S. can be misunderstood to be overlooking or covertly helping such provocations," Park said.



