“As far as I know, the cottonwood tree was located in the DMZ where neither the South nor the North are permitted to go. The South first went into the DMZ with an ax to cut down the tree. Two soldiers from the People’s Army got angry and tried to stop them but the South Korean soldiers threw an ax at the People’s Army soldiers and they fought back with the ax.”
This is a typical answer obtained from Naver’s expert Q&A service when asked about the ‘brutal DMZ ax incident’, showing the level of the so-called expert comment, objectivity and accuracy of content available online to South Korean readers.
The truth is a bit different; on August 18th, 1976, to secure visibility in the DMZ, members of the U.S. military went to cut down cottonwood tree branches in an area under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, whereupon they were attacked by a group of North Korean soldiers. Two died. No South Korean soldiers were involved. The tree in question was felled three days later. Kim Il Sung subsequently sent a message expressing regret, though without an apology.
‘Story K’, an online youth forum on inter-Korean issues, released more similar cases on the 16th in a new report, ‘Monitoring of Debates in Modern Korean History on Information Search Programs’.
39% of the supposedly intelligent answers provided are incorrect, Story K alleged.
The search engines were monitored by selecting keywords such as ‘Rhee Seung Man’ (former South Korean president), ‘KAL bombing’ (bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 in November, 1987), ‘Candlelit mad cow vigils’ (protests against the importation of beef from the USA in 2008), ‘Park Wang Ja murder incident’ (shooting of a South Korean tourist at Mt. Keumgang in summer, 2008) and several other similar terms, then collated the answers received.
1 out of 2-3 responses on ‘Naver’ and ‘Daum’ contained ‘factual errors’, ‘offered uncertain information’ or ‘made suspect allegations’, it concluded, adding that many of the responses raised conspiracy theories and clouded the actual facts.
Suspicions about the murder of Park Wang Ja are a good example. For example, answers riddled with speculation. “When I think about what happened it seems like it was planned… The North Korean provocations happened in the midst of the FTA negotiations. To calm down the loud quarrel going on.”
In addition there were a number of totally incorrect answers, such as “Mad cow disease is an epidemic disease that cannot be destroyed even using water boiled to 600° or hydrochloric acid”.
Commenting on the problem, Professor Park Hyo Jong of Seoul National University’s School of Ethics and Education told Daily NK, “There is a spread of biased discussions and ideology on the internet. There needs to be a cleanup before more information gets ingrained in our collective conscious.”
