The Board on Geographic Names under the U.S. Geological Survey has revised its description of the Dokdo islets as an area of "undesignated sovereignty," from "South Korea," it emerged last week. The BGN's website has no mention of "Korea" in the category of "first-order administrative division" (ADM1) for Dokdo.
The South Korean Embassy in Washington on Saturday said it discovered on the USGS website that Dokdo is currently described as an area of “undesignated sovereignty.” Until recently, typing “Tok-do” in the search box found the islets listed under South Korean sovereignty, along with the old international name “Liancourt Rocks."

The embassy said while the name “Tok-to” used to be listed as the first alternative name for the rocks, it now lists the Japanese moniker “Take Sima" (Takeshima) first.

That gives the impression the BNG prefers the Japanese moniker for the South Korean islets.

The embassy says it is checking when and how the BGN changed its description.

A map from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration produced by the U.S. when the Allied Powers signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan after World War II. The East Sea is marked as 'Japan Sea.'

The BGN's database of geographical names states that geographical information related to Dokdo, including sovereignty, was last updated on Aug. 21, 1996.

It is possible that the South Korean government has been in the dark for 12 years.

The BGN is a federal agency that makes decisions on geographical names in the U.S. and foreign countries. Decisions are made in regular meetings of about 50 officials from the departments of the Interior, State, and Defense, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Postal Service.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade contacted U.S. officials on Sunday asking for the BGN to list Dokdo as Korean. In order to tackle the issue and correct erroneous marking of Dokdo as disputed territory, the ministry decided to set up a taskforce with Shin Kak-soo, second vice foreign minister, in charge.

Bureaus in charge of regional affairs including Northeast Asian Affairs, North American Affairs and European Affairs plus the Bilateral and Multilateral Treaties Divisions will participate in forming the taskforce. In an emergency meeting on Sunday, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan ordered all diplomatic missions around the world to keep a close eye on how each country marks Dokdo, and find appropriate ways to deal with the issue.