Voluntary Agency Network of Korea, a nongovernmental cyber diplomatic organization, is organizing a protest movement to pressure Apple and Google to label Dokdo and the East Sea on their maps.

Apple Inc. has recently decided to use both Korean, Japanese and Franco-English names for the nation’s easternmost islets in its new English map service running on the iOS 6 mobile operating software. An updated Google Maps has also replaced the name Dokdo with the islets’ Franco-English name ― the Liancourt Rocks ― while removing the Korean address.

“Dokdo is our territory that symbolically marks South Korean sovereignty,” said Park Gi-tae, the director of VANK, at a press conference held at the former legation of the Korean Empire (1897-1910) in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

“Even if Google and Apple have digital power, (the issue of map labels) is something that cannot be decided based on economic interests, and the labels cannot be deliberately altered or deleted.”

VANK plans to mobilize its 10,000 members to send letters of protest to the CEOs of the two Silicon Valley companies every day of the year and also campaign on Facebook, Twitter and other social network services.

Earlier this month, members of VANK protested with picket signs in front of Google and Apple headquarters in California over the lack of clear labels, Dokdo and East Sea, in the maps operated by the two companies, as part of a project called “21st Century New Hague Envoy.”

The project title refers to the special envoys sent by Emperor Gojong in 1907 to a meeting of world powers in Hague, the Netherlands, to protest the Japanese encroachment on the Korean Empire.

“This movement of ‘anti-digital imperialism’ is in line with the trend of information power going digital,” added Park.

In order to encourage the participation of Korean-Americans as well as Korean students studying abroad, VANK plans to open its U.S. bureau at George Mason University in Virginia early next year.

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)