Shown above is Hanam City Mayor Lee Hyun-jae. His city has decided to shut down its foreign-language websites instead of correcting erroneous information. Photo courtesy of Hanam City

The city will reopen the websites in May

In response to the Korea News Plus article, Hanam City shut down its foreign-language websites on Feb. 1 instead of updating the name of its mayor (See the Korea News Plus article on Feb. 1).

The city runs three foreign-language websites in English, Japanese, and Chinese. It has come under fire for failing to update them for seven months so that former Mayor Kim Sang-ho could greet visitors.

Incumbent Mayor Lee Hyun-jae was inaugurated as a Hanam chief on July 1 last year after beating former Mayor Kim in an election a month before.

“Please note that our website will be unavailable from Feb. 1, 2023 to April 30, 2023. We are expected to launch our new website in May of 2023,” the English-language website notes.

This measure faces criticism once again.

“Mayor Lee has promised to build the K-Star World in Hanam to become a global cultural city. But the city even failed to change the name of its new mayor at foreign-language websites for seven months,” a CEO at a local marketing company said.

“If I work at Hanam, I would simply update the name of the city Mayor before the overall redesign of the website finishes. Otherwise, foreigners would have no access to any Hanam information.”

The construction of the K-Star World is one of the biggest campaign pledges of the Mayor Lee. The project is about building a Korean wave hub in the city, which would take up to 3 trillion won ($2.4 billion).

Asked why Hanam does not simply update the name of its mayor on the foreign-language websites instead of totally closing it down, a Hanam spokesman said that it had no such plan.

Seen above is the English-language website of Hanam City. It simply shut down the site. Photo captured from Hanam City website

 
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