AFKN to be renamed AFN Korea

The United States Forces Korea (USFK)`s radio-television station, AFKN (American Forces Korean Network) will be renamed AFN (American Forces Network) Korea starting Apr. 2. The name AFKN, which has been used for the past five decades, will be changed but its service will be continued as before, the USFK announced.

The U.S. military command explained that because the title AFN is now used worldwide by the American troops stationed in other countries, the U.S. forces in Korea had also decided to use AFN Korea.

AFKN was installed at the partially destroyed American embassy building in Seoul by U.S. military broadcasting technicians who came to Korea when the U.S. forces landed in Incheon in September 1950, during the Korean War (1950-1953). The radio station started broadcasting when Gen. Douglas MacArthur sent a message through the network to the then North Korean armed forces chief Kim Il-Sung, demanding his capitulation to the United Nations Allied Forces.

Lee Chol-Hi klimt@donga.com