Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Jeju’s selection as 7 wonders not final
By Lee Hyo-sik
The whole country celebrated when its southern resort island of Jeju was selected as one of the New7Wonders of Nature in a worldwide poll on Nov. 12.
But the selection was “provisionary,” not final and the actual winners will be announced as early as next month, according to a key figure spearheading the island’s campaign.
Yang Won-chan, secretary general of the National Committee for Jeju New7Wonders of Nature, said Tuesday that the worldwide voting administered by the Swiss-based organization New7Wonders Foundation will be subject to independent verification.
“On Nov. 12 when Jeju was picked as one of the world’s new seven natural wonders, we said it was only provisionary, not final. Everyone gathered at the Jeju Art Center knew about it and we also issued a press release that the selection was only tentative,”Yang said. “There are campaign committees like us in every candidate country. In cooperation with our counterparts, we demanded the New7Wonders Foundation subject its poll results to an independent confirmation earlier this year. Currently, we are looking for a nonaligned organization that can check the results.”
The secretary general said the possibility that Jeju will not make the final list is very low.
“We cannot be 100 percent sure that the tentative outcome will hold to the end. But we think Jeju ranked within the top five. The final outcome will be announced as early as the end of December when the verification process ends.”