A lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party shows a map of the easternmost islets of Dokdo during a parliamentary audit, in this file photo taken Oct. 11, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of cases of distorted facts on South Korean history identified by the Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) rose over the past three years, but the proportion of corrections being made almost halved, government data showed Thursday.
The number of inaccuracies on South Korean history compiled by KOCIS rose from 411 cases in 2020 to 443 in 2021 and 592 in 2022, according to the data submitted to Rep. Chun Jae-soo of the main opposition Democratic Party.
But of them, the proportion of information being corrected shrank by nearly half from 31.6 percent to 15.9 percent over the same three-year period.
KOCIS operates a “Facts Korea” website, which aims to correct misinformed, inaccurate and deliberately distorted facts on South Korea and the country’s history.
In particular, it saw a 47 percent uptick in cases in which Japan’s preferred names were used to address the body of water and the rocky islets located between South Korea and Japan.
South Korea supports the use of the term “East Sea” to address the body of water bordered by the two nations while Japan calls it “Sea of Japan.”
The two neighbors have also been at odds over the sovereignty of Dokdo, the rocky outcroppings in the East Sea.
South Korea keeps a small police detachment on the islets, effectively controlling Dokdo. Still, Japan has repeatedly claimed sovereignty over the rocky outcroppings.
Japan’s territorial claim over Dokdo has long been a key source of diplomatic friction in relations with South Korea, where many people still harbor deep anti-Japanese resentment for its brutal 1910-45 colonial rule.
(Yonhap)
