{
  "id": 838507,
  "title": "VANK fears 'Sea of Japan' still widely used worldwide for East Sea",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/vank-fears-sea-of-japan-still-widely-used-worldwide-for-east-sea-838507",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-14T05:12:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times-koreatimes",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffairs/20260814/vank-fears-sea-of-japan-still-widely-used-worldwide-for-east-sea"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A Korean non-governmental organization has raised concerns that the Sea of Japan continues to be widely used globally, despite being historically called the East Sea. The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) revealed this after examining the usage of place names by 10 foreign government agencies and international databases. These included the U.S. Department of State, NASA, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Britannica, and National Geographic.\n\nVANK argues that with over 1.2 billion people worldwide utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI), there is a risk that incorrect place names could be perpetuated if they are incorporated into AI training data. Currently, the U.S. State Department's travel advisory page for Korea uses the name Sea of Japan without mentioning the East Sea, while NASA's satellite imagery also adheres to this nomenclature.",
  "summary": "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 Korea and Japan, historically called the East Sea, a nongovernmental organization in Seoul said Friday. The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), which promotes Korea and its history…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Yonhap News",
        "title": "VANK fears 'Sea of Japan' still widely used worldwide for East Sea",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/vank-fears-sea-of-japan-still-widely-used-worldwide-for-east-sea-839379",
        "published": "2026-08-14T03:53:35.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "VANK fears 'Sea of Japan' still widely used worldwide for East Sea",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/vank-fears-sea-of-japan-still-widely-used-worldwide-for-east-sea",
        "published": "2026-08-14T05:02:02.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}