A Korean civic group on Thursday said it has kicked off a new campaign to promote the global awareness of the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo, which lie in the East Sea.

The nongovernmental organization Voluntary Agency Network of Korea, which claims to be a "cyber diplomatic organization," said it has selected 400 students, from middle schools to universities, who will help spread the right information about the islets.

While Korea has been in effective control of the islets with a small police detachment since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, Japan also claims the islets as its territory.

Tokyo has made claims to the island in the form of state-approved school textbooks and various government documents, including its diplomatic white paper.