"'Choson' in Korean... Searching 'Korea' in World Famous English Dictionaries"

A significant number of world-renowned English dictionaries have been found to distort or describe Korean history negatively.
[Photo by VANK Facebook capture]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] It has been revealed that many of the world's famous English dictionaries distort or describe Korean history negatively.

On the 12th, the cyber diplomatic mission VANK compiled the results that appeared when entering 'Korea' in 15 world-renowned English dictionaries, including Collins and American Heritage, and posted them on their official Facebook account.

As a result, among the 15 dictionaries, 11 dictionaries listed the East Sea solely as the Sea of Japan. Although the dual notation of the East Sea is currently 40% in world history textbooks and online map sites, up from 3% twenty years ago, English dictionaries still list the East Sea solely as the Sea of Japan.

Additionally, the Lookwayup.com and Limezone.com English dictionaries incorrectly described Korea's Korean name as 'Choson (조선)' instead of 'Daehanminguk (대한민국)' or 'Hanguk (한국)'.

The distortion of Korean history was also severe. According to VANK, American Heritage, YourDictionary.com, Wordnik.com, and others minimized Korean history by stating it began in the 12th century BCE. In particular, Collins English Dictionary incorrectly stated, "Before opening its ports in 1876 and starting trade with Japan and Choson, Korea was a tributary state of China."

Many dictionaries also described Korean history starting from the Japanese colonial period or mainly focused on the division caused by war. This could instill the mistaken perception that most of Korean history consists of colonial rule or war.

Regarding this, VANK criticized, "Publishers did not properly verify whether the related information was accurate and undistorted when including words in dictionaries, which is why the same or similar errors are detected."

Furthermore, having identified the serious distortion of Korean history in many English dictionaries through this investigation, VANK plans to provide correct materials to the English dictionaries and publishers that provide incorrect information, and send protest and correction requests.

Apple's artificial intelligence (AI) software 'Siri' has updated its response regarding Dokdo following protests from VANK and domestic internet users.
[Photo by VANK Facebook capture]

Meanwhile, earlier, Apple's artificial intelligence (AI) software 'Siri' caused controversy by giving a faulty answer when asked "Whose land is Dokdo?" by directing users to a site titled "13 reasons why Dokdo is not Korean territory."

After strong protests from VANK and domestic netizens, Apple completed corrective measures in about two weeks. According to VANK, currently, when asking Siri "Whose land is Dokdo?" it responds with "The Republic of Korea exercises firm legislative, administrative, and judicial territorial sovereignty over Dokdo," along with providing the address of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.