On the website of U.S. State Department (www.state.gov), there is an introduction to Korea quoting, “Although the crime rate in the Republic of Korea is low, in major metropolitan areas, such as Seoul and Busan, there is a higher incidence of pickpocketing, purse snatching, assaults, hotel room burglaries, and residential crime, and foreigners can be targeted. Incidents of rape have recently increased in popular nightlife districts in Seoul.”

On the website of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs (www.voyage.gc.ca), it says, “There have been cases of sexual assault against Canadians and other foreigners. In some of these cases, the assailant was disguised as a repair or delivery person in order to gain entry to the apartment,” and warns Canadian teachers working in Korea.

As these warnings have been copied and posted on sites like GoAbroad.com, negative images of Korea are rapidly spreading, causing even bigger problems.

The cyber-diplomacy group called "Voluntary Agency Network of Korea" (VANK) discovered the situation while analyzing recent reports relevant to Korea released from each country’s department of foreign affairs in order to understand how serial killer Yoo Young-chul’s case and other major crimes occurred in Korea negatively influence Korea in foreign countries.

VANK made protests against these websites immediately. VANK said, “If these contents are left as is on both countries’ government websites, Americans and Canadians will mistake Korea as a country they should not visit.” VANK added that it would make the Korean tourist industry contract, and furthermore, the national image might collapse.

(englishnews@chosun.com )