An executive at POSCO Terminal, a subsidiary of steelmaker POSCO, amended an error concerning Admiral Yi Sun-sin in a history book by a British writer.

While reading the book “What On Earth Happened” by Christopher Lloyd in September, Kwak Jeong-shik was surprised to find that the Korean admiral was identified as Chinese. He sent an e-mail to the book’s author to inform him about the error and received a reply last month that Lloyd would “do all I can to make sure these improvements are reflected on any new edition of the book.”

“It could have been regarded as a minor mistake by a certain Western writer, but I made the request for correction knowing that small efforts to put right our history will clear the identity of our people and history. As much as it is important to mention the nation’s history and international affairs in larger terms, amending small errors or mistranslations about our history published in foreign newspapers or papers will also help set our history right,” said Kwak.

He first came across the Korean version of the book when it was recommended for POSCO Terminal employees to read during summer, and delved into the English version as well as he found it interesting. The company has been holding book club meetings every month since about two years ago, in which the employees select a book and discuss it.

“We are carrying on the book club as we see that for a logistics company with a short history like POSCO Terminal to grow in global competence, it is important for the employees to have background knowledge in humanities, social sciences and natural science as well as on information directly related to their work,” said Kwak.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)