Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education invites history lecturer who drew controversy for saying “The U.S. started the Korean War”

[Financial News] The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education has come under fire for bias in schools after inviting a progressive-leaning history lecturer to give a special lecture for teachers, parents and others.
According to Yonhap News Agency and other outlets on the 21st, Hwang Hyun-pil, director of the Institute for Correcting History, will speak at the “2026 Gyeonggi Education Transformation: Distinguished Guest Lecture” at the main auditorium of the southern office building on the 28th.
A former history teacher, Hwang is a YouTuber with 1.13 million subscribers and a non-executive director of the Independence Hall of Korea. Hwang is scheduled to speak that day on the topic “History as History, Education as Education.”
Since the provincial education office notified schools at all levels of the lecture plan on the 16th, complaints from teachers demanding that the lecturer be replaced have continued to come in through the e-People portal and phone calls to the relevant department. The complaints stem from Hwang’s past political and historical remarks.
Hwang sparked controversy in the past by making remarks to the effect that “the Korean War was a war started by the United States.” Hwang later explained through his YouTube account that it was a “malicious edit” that had cut out the surrounding context.
More recently, Hwang also sparked controversy by posting a review, apparently intended to raise suspicions, of the film “Assassin(s),” about the shooting of the late Yuk Young-soo.
Despite the continuing complaints, the provincial education office says it will go ahead with the lecture as scheduled without replacing the speaker. An official said, “The speaker was selected following recommendations from various channels,” adding, “Since the topic of this special lecture is not a political issue but ‘the importance of history education,’ we do not believe this warrants replacing the speaker.”
Meanwhile, the distinguished guest lecture series is a regular event launched after Superintendent of Education Ahn Min-seok took office to share current issues in education.
[email protected] Kim Hee-sun Reporter