New Zealand was accidentally labelled as Japan on a map screened by a Russian media outlet in the latest geographic snub for the country.
Moscow-based RT has apologised to Kiwis for the mix-up that also labelled Papua New Guinea as South Korea.
The bungle came in a report by its US bureau earlier this month about potential new missile bases in the Asia Pacific region, presented by journalist Ashlee Banks.
“The US is looking to place missiles in Japan, South Korea and Australia,”she told viewers.
But in a large graphic next to her Australia was the only country correctly identified.
An RT spokesperson told New Zealand’s Newshub the mistake was genuine.
“Our American early morning news team suffered a little geography mishap.”
It is the latest geographic mistake involving New Zealand.
Earlier this month, a mischievous ‘World Trigger Map’ was devised by a Reddit user to annoy every country’s citizens by linking them to unwanted symbols.
Australia was identified by a 1980s’ beer ad featuring Paul Hogan.
For New Zealand the ‘trigger’ was to be left off the map.
In February, giant Swedish homewares company Ikea omitted the country from a world map print sold in Australia.
The mistakes came after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and comedian Rhys Darby appeared in a light-hearted campaign, called #GetNZontheMap.
They described the regular omissions as “the next great conspiracy: New Zealand is disappearing off world maps”.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019
