Samsung Weather App Shows South Korean Islets as North Korean Territory
A weather application pre-installed on Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones incorrectly identified the South Korean islets of Dokdo as part of North Korea. The error appeared on devices running the company's latest operating system, One UI 8.5. The company said the mistake originated from external weather data provided by The Weather Channel.
japantimes.co.jpA weather application featured on smartphones made by Samsung Electronics Co. is erroneously identifying South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as North Korean territory. The weather application pre-installed on Galaxy devices showed Dokdo as being located in North Gyeongsang Province in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the North's official name.
The error appeared only on devices running the company's latest operating system, One UI 8.5. One UI 8.5 comes with the latest flagship Galaxy S26 series and has also been distributed to older models, including the Galaxy S25 and S24 series, as well as the foldable Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, through software updates.
The company said the error stemmed from an issue involving external weather data provided by The Weather Channel (TWC).
"We operate the weather service using data provided by TWC, and the error occurred on the provider's side," a company official who asked not to be named said. " Dokdo has long been a recurring source of tension between South Korea and Japan, as Tokyo continues to lay claim over the islets in policy papers, public statements and school textbooks.
Key Facts
Potential Impact
- 01
Users of affected Samsung devices may see incorrect territorial information for Dokdo.
- 02
Samsung will update its weather application to correct the location data.
- 03
The incident may draw attention to how mapping data is sourced for sensitive border areas.
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