The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on the 16th it will hold an inauguration ceremony for the 19th Korea Fact-Checking Corps on the 10th floor of the Korea Press Center.
The Fact-Checking Corps is a civilian publicity team that finds Korea-related errors in foreign media outlets and on websites and promotes culture, history and tradition to the world. Anyone, Korean or foreign national, age 18 or older can participate.
Starting with the first class in 2013, a total of 709 members have been active both online and offline to date. During that time, members found and reported errors in foreign media that labeled the East Sea solely as the Sea of Japan, leading to corrections such as dual labeling as East Sea/Sea of Japan.
From Jul. 21 for three weeks, the competition rate for recruiting the 19th Fact-Checking Corps was 3.4 to 1. With 120 applicants, a total of 35 people were selected, including 29 Koreans and 6 foreigners with a high understanding of Korea and strong foreign-language skills.
In particular, the 19th Fact-Checking Corps includes speakers of not only English, Japanese and Chinese but also less common languages such as Turkish, Hungarian and Arabic. To ensure smooth activities, a "mentor-mentee system" is newly introduced, and following the previous class, six people who applied for a consecutive term will support the activities of new members as "mentors."
After the inauguration ceremony, the 19th Fact-Checking Corps will report incorrect Korea-related information through the "Korea Fact-Checking Service" operated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and will begin full-fledged promotional activities to convey accurate information about Korea.