VANK, led by Park Gi-tae, which recently prompted partial corrections to historically distorted expressions in the Korean drama Perfect Crown distributed globally through Disney+, has launched a new policy proposal campaign aimed at preventing similar controversies in the future.
VANK announced on May 21, 2026, that it would begin collecting policy proposals designed to prevent misunderstandings and distortions related to Korean history and culture as part of the fifth project under its ongoing “We Are AI Lawmakers” initiative ahead of Korea’s 9th Nationwide Local Elections scheduled for June 3, 2026.
Under the initiative, VANK promotes the idea that every citizen can become a lawmaker by using artificial intelligence as a policy assistant to help draft proposals. The organization plans to carry out a total of six projects before the local elections.
According to VANK, the latest project was directly inspired by concerns surrounding the MBC drama Perfect Crown. The organization argued that scenes such as the king’s coronation ceremony, depicted under the fictional premise of a 21st-century constitutional monarchy, could create misunderstandings among international audiences about Korea’s sovereign historical identity during the multilingual subtitle and dubbing localization process.
VANK said that the greater the global influence of a cultural production, the more important it becomes to move beyond one-time post-release correction requests and instead establish preventive review systems and institutional safeguards capable of accurately conveying Korean history and culture across the global content distribution environment.
To that end, the organization presented five key institutional reform proposals for joint consideration by the National Assembly, government agencies and the private sector.
The proposals include establishing nonbinding guidelines for historically and culturally sensitive expressions in broadcasting and OTT content; creating a more systematic reporting and review mechanism for Korea-related errors on global platforms; and building a cooperative framework involving the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and private experts.
Additional recommendations include reviewing the introduction of historical consultation checklists for use during content production and translation stages, as well as establishing recommended standards for historical and cultural review during the subtitle and dubbing localization process for global OTT platforms.
VANK particularly stressed the importance of what it described as “subtitle sovereignty,” calling the establishment of subtitle and dubbing review systems the top priority in today’s rapidly evolving information environment. The organization argued that productions starring globally recognized celebrities spread rapidly across multiple languages through algorithms and fan communities, making translation accuracy directly tied to South Korea’s national image.
Park said dramas, films, subtitles, dubbing and the localization processes of global OTT platforms now play a major role in shaping how Korean history and culture are communicated worldwide. “As content increasingly becomes synonymous with national image, more sophisticated review and consultation standards are needed,” he said.
He added that the initiative is not intended to restrict creative freedom, but rather to establish a minimum review framework to prevent sensitive expressions from being inaccurately conveyed overseas. Park said the proposal should be understood as a quality management system aimed at enhancing the international credibility of Korean content.
As part of the campaign, VANK said it plans to pursue a four-stage follow-up process, including policy forums and discussions, drafting preliminary guidelines and checklists, promoting the formation of a public-private consultative body, and developing concrete measures for error reporting and institutional reform.
Further details about the campaign are available on VANK’s national policy communication platform “Woollim” at the following link:
https://www.woollimkorea.net/beginning-of-woollim/view.jsp?sno=4080