HANOI (Reuters) -&nbsp;Vietnam&nbsp;has launched an inspection into the website of K-pop group&nbsp;Blackpink's tour&nbsp;organiser, ahead of the group's&nbsp;concert&nbsp;in Hanoi,&nbsp;over&nbsp;criticism from fans that it shows a&nbsp;map&nbsp;of the&nbsp;South&nbsp;China&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;with disputed boundaries.
The controversy follows&nbsp;Vietnam's decision to ban Warner Bros' highly anticipated film "Barbie"&nbsp;over&nbsp;a scene allegedly featuring the "nine-dash line" used in Chinese&nbsp;maps to illustrate Beijing's claims&nbsp;over&nbsp;vast areas of the&nbsp;South&nbsp;China&nbsp;Sea, including swathes of what&nbsp;Vietnam&nbsp;considers its continental shelf.
Vietnam's culture ministry said late on Wednesday it had ordered an inspection of the iME website "to verify the suspicion that the company organizing the&nbsp;Blackpink&nbsp;music night promoted the cow-tongue line", using the&nbsp;Vietnamese phrase to describe the U-shaped line.
The ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the possible outcome of the inspection. It was unclear when it would announce its findings.
South&nbsp;Korean agency YG Entertainment, which manages&nbsp;Blackpink, had no immediate comment.
Late on Thursday, Brian Chow, CEO of iME, said in a statement that the incident was an "unfortunate misunderstanding".
"iME quickly reviewed and committed to replace the images that are not suitable for&nbsp;Vietnamese," Chow said in the statement, adding that iME was aware of respecting the sovereignty and culture of all the countries where it had a presence.
The iME website was still inaccessible after the statement but a cached version seen by Reuters and last updated on July 4, shows a vague nine-dash line that encompasses nearly the whole&nbsp;South&nbsp;China&nbsp;Sea.
Vietnam&nbsp;and&nbsp;China&nbsp;have long had&nbsp;overlapping territorial claims to a potentially energy-rich stretch in the waterway. The&nbsp;Southeast Asian country has repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of violating its sovereignty.
Blackpink, a cornerstone of&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's multi-billion dollar entertainment industry, is the latest to court trouble in&nbsp;Vietnam&nbsp;for depicting&nbsp;China's controversial nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016.&nbsp;China&nbsp;refuses to recognise the ruling.
The culture ministry's move followed complaints by&nbsp;Vietnamese internet users who noticed the nine-dash line on the&nbsp;organiser's website.
"Bought two tickets for me and my date. Then saw the cow-tongue, and quit. I am (a) patriot," Tu Anh Xinh, a&nbsp;Blackpink&nbsp;fan wrote on Facebook.
The world-famous K-pop girl group is due to perform in&nbsp;Vietnam&nbsp;for the first time on July 29-30, having been granted a government license that requested the&nbsp;organiser&nbsp;to comply with the government's regulations on performing activities.
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(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen, Khanh Vu, Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi; additional reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Seoul; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Hugh Lawson)

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Vietnam probes Blackpink concert organiser over South China Sea map