SEOUL — The cyber diplomatic organization VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea, led by Director Park Ki-tae) announced on October 8 that it is launching a global campaign to inform the world that Balhae is a historical Korean kingdom that succeeded Goguryeo, countering China’s push to register Balhae heritage sites as UNESCO World Heritage.

According to VANK, the Jilin Provincial Government in China recently outlined plans to apply for the World Heritage listing of the "Balhae State Fortress Sites and Tombs" and is formulating related strategies through its affiliated agencies.

Alongside this, China is promoting the production of pop culture content, including dramas centered on Balhae history and videos portraying Dae Joyeong—the founder of Balhae—as a subordinate figure under the orders of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty.

VANK views these moves as an extension of China's "Northeast Project," an attempt to incorporate Korean history into its own, emphasizing that a proactive response is essential before the heritage listing process gains full momentum.

In particular, VANK noted that distortions and omissions regarding Balhae history are already widespread across reputable overseas websites.

In an August investigation by VANK covering 10 major overseas English-language websites—including UNESCO, NASA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art—a total of 11 Korean history errors were identified, with Balhae-related errors accounting for four of them.

For instance, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States narrowed Balhae’s territorial scope solely to the Korean Peninsula, while Encyclopædia Britannica classified Balhae under both "China and Korea" yet omitted the Republic of Korea from the relevant regions.

VANK expressed deep concern that these continuous distortions could be spread and reproduced uncritically via search engines and generative artificial intelligence (AI).

To counter this, VANK is distributing promotional posters in both Korean and English. Furthermore, to combat information propagation in the AI era, the organization plans to actively utilize its self-operated "Global Korean Fake News Tracker" platform. This platform tracks and evaluates risks such as the exposure of incorrect information on search engines and its potential inclusion in AI training data.

In addition to correcting individual errors, VANK is expanding its activities through its internal national policy proposal platform "Ullim" and the citizen legislative platform "AI Legislative Officer" to prompt a government-level response.

VANK plans to urge the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to expand multilingual content on Korean history and investigate historical distortion cases through overseas diplomatic missions, aiming to establish systematic policies and legal foundations so that Korean history promotion is not merely a one-time event.

Director Park Ki-tae stated, "The greater danger of historical distortion lies in how the same narratives are repeated across different sources until they eventually become accepted as established facts by the global community. Rather than trying to correct deeply ingrained perceptions later, we must create an environment in the AI era where people worldwide can encounter accurate Korean history from the very beginning."

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