SEOUL The controversy over Hangul Korean character domains registered without official approval by cybersquatters at home and abroad is worsening.

However, VeriSign Global Registry Service, which is in charge of registration of non-English Internet domain names, has remained silent and its passive reaction has prompted harsh criticism by Korean Internet registration companies and netizens.

According to domestic Internet address brokerage firms, the launch of registration services was scheduled to begin starting Nov. 17, but thousands of Korean domain names have already been registered.

Though some domain name reselling companies sent e-mails to VeriSign requesting a solution, they said that they just received replies simply stating that: "We are also aware of what is happening and are now preparing countermeasures."

"The fundamental responsibility of the registration process is wholly up to VeriSign GRS," the resellers say.

Despite these criticisms and worries, VeriSign has not yet come forth with an official explanation or apology on the issue.

To cope with this situation, some reselling companies in the country have already dispatched their officials to the headquarters of Virginia-based VeriSign.

Moreover, there is yet another problem with Internet domain addresses using Korean characters.

Computer experts admitted that English language keyboard users will have to adopt additional character software to connect to Hangul domains.

This will require a modification to users operating systems which will take time to implement, meaning that the compatibility problem between the languages will be a major obstacle in distributing non-English Internet domain names.

Meanwhile, the Internet Society, a U.S.-based non-profit organization, requested that VeriSign postpone its non-English Internet address registration service until this problem is resolved.

VeriSign GRS has managed Internet domain names ending with .com, .org, .net and set up a technological standard for non-English domain names.