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A key Cheong Wa Dae official on Monday said “appropriate steps” will be taken if an investigation finds the Korean Embassy neglectful of its duty while the BGN made the decision. Another official said it was “problematic” that the embassy was unaware of the change, especially since President Lee Myung-bak has ordered all government agencies to keep a close eye on how each country marks Dokdo around the world.

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan attends a Dokdo task force meeting at the Foreign Ministry building in Seoul on Monday.

Cheong Wa Dae is considering removing responsible figures, including Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, after a series of diplomatic fiascos, from the furor over the import of U.S. beef to the fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist in Mt. Kumgang in North Korea and the deletion, at North Korea’s urging, of comment on the issue in the ASEAN Regional Forum chairman’s statement.

After a meeting of a Dokdo taskforce set up in the wake of renewed Japanese claims to the islets, Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo said, "If the audit finds that the Korean Embassy did not take appropriate measure while the BGN's marking of the Dokdo was changed from South Korean to an area of undesignated sovereignty, the necessary disciplinary measures will be taken." Foreign Minister Yu in the meeting called it “lamentable that we have caused citizens anxiety about this issue.” He added his ministry takes the situation “very seriously."

Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Tae-shik in a press conference at the embassy in Washington D.C. on Sunday expressed regret and said he felt responsible for failing to react promptly to the change of the BGN's marking.

The government and ruling Grand National party in an emergency meeting at the National Assembly on Monday, agreed to ask the BGN to restore the entry for Dokdo as Korean territory.

The opposition parties led by the main Democratic Party also called for immediate restoration of the entry and demanded Lee to sack his foreign affairs aides.

The Dokdo Research and Preservation Association issued a statement on Monday urging the U.S. agency to retract the “erroneous decision to deprive one nation of its sovereignty” and called on the government to put diplomatic efforts into persuading the BGN to do so.

(englishnews@chosun.com )