The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has faced controversy due to the inclusion of a Japanese shrine in a promotional video created for the ‘King Sejong's Birthday’ event.
Professor Seo Kyung-deok of Sungshin Women's University noted on the 16th through his social media service (SNS) that "an event was held at Gyeongbokgung Palace yesterday to commemorate ‘King Sejong's Birthday.’ However, the background in the video featured a Japanese shrine instead of a hanok, which raises concerns."
According to Professor Seo, the building shown in the video is a photograph of the Kanda Shrine in Tokyo, which is a nationally registered cultural asset of Japan. Additionally, another building in the video depicts a structure resembling a Chinese temple.
The video was played several times just before the main event, but it was confirmed that it was not used during the actual event.
Professor Seo criticized, "While it is important to broadly disseminate Hangul and the Korean language worldwide, it is unacceptable that we ourselves make such absurd mistakes during domestic events. Instead of blaming the production company, the government agency that failed to manage and supervise properly should reflect on this."