A group of Korean citizens is "campaigning to have Tokyo dropped as a venue for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games," according to the JAPAN TIMES. The group, called Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), has written the IOC and has also "been circulating an online petition to thwart Tokyo’s selection." VANK’s website describes itself as a “cyber diplomatic organization” with 70,000 members. The Yonhap news agency and various Korean publications reported that in a letter sent on April 5, VANK appealed to the IOC, raising the matter of anti-Korean demonstrations in Tokyo and Osaka by ultranationalist groups as prime examples of Japan’s “discriminatory” demonstrations, which it claims “contradict the IOC’s stated principles of Peace and Humanism.” The letter to the IOC "included clippings of coverage on this topic by the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN." VANK President Park Ki-Tae Park denounced the demonstrations in Japan as “... fomenting the world’s fear of war, and evoking a revival of the imperialism that left behind wounds to people in neighboring countries that linger to this day” (JAPAN TIMES, 7/7).
