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Korean embassies under fire for failing to correct errors in foreign textbooks

Published: 18 Apr. 2025, 10:34

A page from a Canadian textbook that wrongly showed Jeju Island as Japanese territory. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Recent revelations that several Korean embassies overseas failed to correct serious errors about Korea in foreign textbooks have drawn criticism, with Sungshin Women’s University professor Seo Kyoung-duk denouncing the inaction as “a grave dereliction of duty.”

“Textbooks from countries including the United Kingdom, Hungary and Laos contain serious misinformation about Korea,” Seo wrote on his Instagram account on Friday.

“A British secondary school textbook describes Korea as ‘a drug manufacturing country, specifically a producer of amphetamines,’” wrote Seo. “A Hungarian textbook contains wrongful claims that the Korean Peninsula was part of the ‘Empire of Genghis Khan’ or ‘Chinese territory during the Han Dynasty.’”

“A Laotian textbook includes false statements such as ‘the Russian Empire occupied Korea from 1864 to 1875’ and ‘63 percent of Korea’s population are farmers who live in rural areas,’” added Seo.

“These facts came to light in the Board of Audit and Inspection’s (BAI) Tuesday report on the operational status of overseas diplomatic missions,” Seo wrote, noting that “11 embassies received notices of these errors between 2021 and 2023 from Academy of Korean Studies under the Ministry of Education, but took no action to request corrections from the relevant education ministries or publishers.”

Seo urged swift action, writing, “please do everything possible to ensure these inaccuracies are corrected as soon as possible.”

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

BY LEE JI-YOUNG [[email protected]]