On Sept. 1, the Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS), part of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, launched the Facts:Korea website, a new website designed to help correct inaccurate information that is out there about Korea.
The site receives and deals with reports about inaccurate statements or errors made online about Korea, as well as incorrect statements or statistics used by smartphone apps. Through this website, people from around the world will be able to report false statements made about Korea, anywhere and at any time.
Inaccurate information about Korea covers all sorts of incorrect facts that might exist in content produced outside Korea. For example, the national Taegeukgi flag might be upside down, or Korea’s traditional Hanbok attire might be mistranslated into English as “kimono.” Once, South Korea was even referred to as being in Southeast Asia.
The website aims to bring together the correctional work currently being carried out by a range of government organizations, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency and the Northeast Asian History Foundation, as one single integrated website increases efficiency.
The site was also designed to encourage the public to engage more in such correctional activities, especially as misinformation about Korea can be found worldwide. To this end, the decision was made to launch the website after a meeting that brought together all the government bodies involved in this work, hosted by the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
At the Facts:Korea website you can get a lot of information about Korean history and traditions, as well as information about Dokdo Island and the East Sea.
For a look at the site, please visit https://www.factsaboutkorea.go.kr/ or download the app directly to your smartphone.
“We will continue to work to make right any misinformation about Korea, so as to improve the national image,” said KOCIS Director Kim Kabsoo.
By Wi Tack-whan, Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writers
whan23@korea.kr
