Following the public uproar for jokingly likening the skin
colour of a Nigerian student to charcoal, a Korean politician
Kim Moo Sung has apologized. Moo-Sung, a front runner for
the 2017 South Korean presidential elections and the leader
of the country’s ruling conservative Saenuri Party issued the
apology after public criticism over his comment.
"I failed to realise that showing friendliness this way could
hurt someone’s feelings," Moo Sung wrote on his Facebook
page on Friday, December 18. "I am really sorry and there is
no excuse. I sincerely apologise from the bottom of my
heart"
Moo Sung made the comment while delivering coal
briquettes to the needy in Seoul alongside a group of foreign
exchange students earlier on Friday. The event was part of a
charity programme which drew around 40 students from 27
countries as well as 50 young members of the Saenuri Party.
"Your face colour is the same as the briquettes’ colour," the
64-year-old said to a Nigerian student while laughing.
The 26-year-old Nigerian student who is attending a local
university on a South Korean government scholarship,
Babalola Joshua Adekunie, said he did not take offence.
"I don’t give any special meaning to it," Adekunie told local
news outlet Focus News. "He said it jokingly. He was
laughing. Personally I’m a black man… It’s nothing that I am
ashamed of."
When he was asked if he thought Kim should apologise to
him, Adekunie replied in Korean: "Guenchanayo (No
problem)
Comments
Post a Comment