VANK launches multilingual anti-IOC campaign on occasion of G7 Summit
By Kang Seung-woo
On the occasion of the upcoming G7 Summit to be held in the U.K., the Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a civic organization promoting Korea and its history online, has produced multilingual posters criticizing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of hypocrisy in its handling of Japan's disputed Olympic torch route map.
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea's poster criticizing the International Olympic Committee's failure to take action against Japan's inclusion of Dokdo in its Tokyo Olympic map / Courtesy of VANK
Seoul has strongly urged the IOC to order Tokyo to remove the islets of Dokdo from the map of its Summer Olympics, scheduled to kick off on July 23. The easternmost islets belong to Korea, but Japan claims sovereignty over them. Despite the Korean side's repeated protests, the IOC as well as the Japanese organizer have yet to take any action.
As a result, VANK produced posters in Korean and English criticizing the IOC last week, with the title “Is the IOC a puppet of Japanese government?” and the non-governmental organization has expanded its anti-IOC efforts by coming up with posters in seven more languages ― French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese.
According to VANK, the idea of the multilingual posters was devised to make the passivity of the IOC known to global leaders participating in the G7 Summit in Cornwall, the U.K., from Friday to Sunday. President Moon Jae-in has been invited to the event.
“If the IOC does not want to be defamed as a puppet of the Japanese government in the international community, it should demand that Japan revise its Olympic map immediately,” VANK leader Park Gi-tae said.
The map issue is further fueling Korean Olympics-related anger as the IOC banned South and North Korean athletes from marching with the flag of the Korean Peninsula depicting Dokdo during the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics due to a complaint from Japan, which claimed it was a political act contrary to the Olympic spirit. Korea acquiesced to the IOC's call at the time.