VANK “Proposal to spread Equal Earth map…African governments and civic groups respond”

Cyber ​​diplomatic mission VANK (Director Park Ki-tae) announced on the 12th that African diplomatic missions in Korea and local African civic groups are responding positively to the proposal for cooperation to expand the use of the 'Equal Earth' world map.

Equal Earth is an isometric map that accurately reflects the relative areas between continents. Last September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 'Correct the Map' resolution with the support of 164 countries.

Afterwards, VANK sent a letter last month to the ministries of foreign affairs of 55 African Union (AU) member countries, the AU Commission, and 21 African diplomatic missions in Korea, requesting cooperation in disseminating the Equal Earth map in accordance with the purpose of the resolution.

According to VANK, the Gabonese ambassador to Korea said in his reply, “We welcome the adoption of the resolution proposed by Togo and supported by the AU,” and “I highly value the efforts of VANK and Korean youth in spreading the Equal Earth Project.” He also said that VANK's activities are in line with Gabon's public diplomacy goals.

The Ivory Coast Embassy in Korea also announced that it would print the Equal Earth map and place it in the embassy waiting room. We have received introduction materials for the Korean and French versions of Equalus from VANK and are preparing a solidarity message to deliver to Korean students.

Earlier this month, VANK expanded its cooperation targets to 19 local African civic groups and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Letters were sent to the relevant organizations, introducing VANK's awareness-raising activities, such as spreading the Equal Earth map, correcting the description of Africa in textbooks, and using the name 'ASF' instead of 'African Swine Fever'. In addition, joint content production was proposed for 'Africa Day' (May 25) in 2027.

Accordingly, ‘Speak Up Africa’, a civic group headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, expressed its intention to cooperate. This is an organization that started a campaign to change the Mercator map in 2025 together with the African media group 'Africa No Filter' and contributed to the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution.

VANK said that Speak Up Africa sympathized with the various proposals for cooperation and showed interest in next year's Africa Day activities with Korean students and teachers.

The two sides plan to discuss specific cooperation plans through video conference in the near future.

Director Park Ki-tae said, "Korean youth helped to correct the world map that Africa first started to correct, and now Africa is joining hands. Based on our experience in correcting distortions and errors in world maps and information, we will become equal partners in creating change together with Africa."