American broadcaster NBC in hot water over comments about Japanese colonial period

Coverage of the Pyeongchang Olympics appeared in the British newspaper The Times

British newspaper The Times falsely claimed that Jeju Island belonged to Japan

After NBC, the official American broadcaster for the Winter Olympics, aroused public criticism for suggesting that Korea had benefited from the Japanese occupation, the British daily The Times stirred up yet more outrage by claiming Jeju Island belongs to Japan.

A Times article about the opening ceremony appeared in the international section of the Feb. 10 issue and included a picture of the joint Korean team entering the stadium, carrying the Unified Peninsula Flag. In the picture, a circle has been drawn around Jeju Island on the flag, and the caption says, ". . . the flag carried by the Korean athletes proved controversial not because it represented a union of two implacable foes, but because it appeared to lay claim to an island, circled, owned by Japan."

On top of mistaking Jeju for Dokdo, The Times was accepting Japan's claim to own Dokdo without question. On the advice of the IOC, Dokdo had been left off the flag because it might cause a political dispute. Noting the absurdly incorrect report, the Korean Embassy in the UK lodged an official complaint with The Times and demanded that it publish a correction.

The homepage of NBC, the official American broadcaster for the Pyeongchang Olympics

NBC's offensive remark was made by news analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo, who described Japan as "a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945, but every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation."

NBC acknowledged the inappropriateness of the remark and through the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee issued an apology, saying, "We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments and we apologize." The Organizing Committee says, "We immediately protested to NBC, and NBC sent us an official letter of apology and also apologized in a live broadcast seen by 75 million viewers the next morning."

By Kim Tae-kyu, staff reporter

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