VANK launches digital distribution campaign for UN recommendation ‘Equal Earth’ world map to 10,000 elementary, middle and high schools in Korea

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Seong-jin = VANK, a cyber diplomatic mission, announced on the 14th that it will begin a campaign to digitally distribute the world map of the 'Equal Earth projection' recommended by the UN General Assembly to 10,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in Korea.

VANK established a new Equal Earth-related campaign site (equalearth.one) and made the Equal Earth world map available for free download in various sizes and formats, including small, medium, and large, high-resolution original, and printable PDF.

VANK also provides information such as school/institution usage guides, class activity sheets, and answers and progress guidance for teachers on the site so that domestic schools can use the Equal Earth world map in class.

On the site, you can also check the contents of related resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly.

The United Nations General Assembly previously passed a resolution on the 4th (local time) recommending that governments, educational institutions, international organizations, and technology companies adopt a new map based on the Equal Earth projection, which accurately displays the area of ​​each continent and has relatively little distortion.

This time, VANK produced not only a Korean version but also an English version of the Equal Earth world map.

On VANK's English version of the map, Dokdo and the East Sea are written in English as 'Dokdo' and 'East Sea', respectively.

VANK plans to meet its goal of digitally distributing maps to 10,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in Korea by counting the number of map downloads and sharing through the site.

VANK has raised issues with the Mercator map, which shows high-latitude areas larger than they actually are, and has been working to improve global awareness and correct errors in textbooks.

In particular, to correct the distortion of the size of the African continent, we produced the 'Equal Earth World Map Korean Version'.

The Korean version of the map produced by VANK was officially adopted and registered on the Equal Earth projection official website (equal-earth.com).

Hwang In-seon, a youth researcher at VANK who planned this campaign, said, "We wanted to make it easier to use the Equal Earth map in places where people encounter world maps on a daily basis, such as school classes, educational materials, homepages, and promotional content. We hope that this will be an opportunity for maps produced in Korean and English to be actually used in various spaces at home and abroad."

Park Ki-tae, director of VANK, emphasized, “The reason VANK produced and released Equal Earth maps of various sizes was to ensure that anyone could use them right away according to their needs,” adding, “Now we need to move on to increasing actual distribution and use.”

He also added, "The English version of the Equal Earth map produced by VANK has 'East Sea' and 'Dokdo' written on it alone," adding, "As the digital distribution of the Equal Earth world map expands, we hope that correct information about the East Sea and Dokdo will also be known to the world."

In the future, VANK plans to expand digital distribution of the Equal Earth world map to elementary, middle, and high schools around the world following Korea.