Mike Weisbart in the Korea Times has a good column on what VANK should be doing besides harrassing foreigners with their views of history:

I used to think the people from VANK had nothing better to do with their time. As you may know, VANK is the Volunteer Agency Network of Korea, the organization endearingly dedicated to promoting a positive image of the country. They’re the ones who started up that big sleuth campaign on the internet, asking people to hunt around looking for mistakes that foreigners make when referring to Korea

(…)

A better priority would be to convince your lawmakers to stop acting like a bunch of Neanderthals. Few things hurt the reputation of this country more than images beamed around the world of legislators slugging it out at the National Assembly.

Yes, that’s right, there was yet another nasty incident in the National Assembly the other day. This time it was the would-be champions of a closed rice market who did their best to make Korea look bad.

He is absolutely right. I talk to people back in the US and they don’t ask me about the East Sea or Dokto; they ask me about the fist fight in the Korean parliament or the violent anti-American riots they saw on the news. This is what is killing the country’s image, not someone calling the East Sea the Sea of Japan.