Puzzlet Chung wrote:
I am Puzzlet Chung, one of the administrators in Korean Wikipedia.
User:WonYong (also in en.wp) in Korean Wikipedia claims that Korean Wikipedia should follow South Korean National Security Law so that the contents potentially able to threat the nation (i.e. South Korea) should be censored. He made National Security violation templates, to tag "anti-State" articles which should be deleted:
http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security2
WonYong insists that it is South Korea that try to conserve Korean language and protect it from extinction, hence both administration and contents of Korean Wikipedia should follow South Korean laws, and Korean language speakers who is not South Korean citizens don't have anything to do with it. He states that North Korea is not recognized by South Korea as a nation but a "band of mafias," (the statement of which is not true, since North Korea is a member of UN, and relation between two Koreas has changed), and doesn't deserve for Korean Wikipedia to reflect its POV.
The problem is that some users would agree to his point of view. Out of two Korean [[names of Korea]], some South Koreans relate "Chosŏn" with North Korea and Communism. They think equal juxtaposition of two names, (juxtapose the names when they have to, of course), as not satisfying Natural Point of View as in South Korea, where the majority of the Korean Wikipedia users live in, and where the server is located as well. Although "Chosŏnmal" is the name of Korean language called not only by North Koreans, but majority of Chinese Koreans and some Japanese Koreans, some find "Chosŏnmal" aggressive and inappropriate to use it in some articles.
I am a South Korean citizen myself, but as far as I understand Wikipedian policy of NPOV, WonYong's activity threats NPOV more than the "Evil Wikipedia" would threat the existence of South Korea, not like what he might think, as long as Wikipedia is not a some kind of Communists' propaganda. But I've started to seriously consider about moving DB server back to Florida and "foreigning" the site, contributed by so-called foreigns and South Koreans who's not afraid of South Korean laws.
Regards,
Puzzlet Chung
This is indeed very bad and flies against everything wikipedia stands for! I am also mailing this mail to the foundation list as this seems to go against everything the foundation stands for.
Waerth/Walter
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org