Russian ambassador, embassy, Korea Times comment on cartoons.

A screencap of a screencap, from a 미디어오늘 article.

The Korea Times has two pieces in the paper addressing the recent cartoon controversy. One is a letter from the Russian ambassador; an excerpt:

I am writing to you in regards to something posted on The Korea Times Web site on March 30 and April 1, 2010, which were caricatures concerning the inhumane terrorist attacks occurred in Moscow subway.

The appearance of such publications in the aftermath when our country is mourning over dozens of its citizens that have perished following a monstrous crime planned by terrorist forces, provoked feelings of bewilderment and indignity in the Russian community.

As well as most Russian citizens, we estimate the publishing of the caricatures in The Korea Times as an insult and outrage over the memory of the perished.

In our opinion, by doing such, The Korea Times practically connives with the international terrorists and those forces, who are interested in the destabilization of Russia and other regions of the world.

In particular, the most deplorable fact is that the caricatures concerning the Moscow tragedy appeared in the period commemorating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea

Such publications are hardly to promote the relations of the strategic partnership between our two states.

The website for the Russian Embassy in Seoul put out a press release on the 6th saying the cartoons "have caused indignation in Russia":

At a time when words of sympathy, grief and support come in from across the world, including from President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak, such a cynical move by the South Korean newspaper can only be regarded as an outrage upon the memory of the dead and as an insult to the feelings of the Russians who have lived through a terrible tragedy.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made an appropriate formal representation to the Japanese side over the publication in The Korea Times.

The Russian Embassy in Seoul demanded an official apology from the Korea Times editors.

The second is the Times regretting the response, mentioning the cartoons are syndicated out of Thailand; again, an excerpt:

It is regrettable if the cartoons aroused any negative feelings in Russians or any other readers.

We want to make it clear that the publication of the cartoons was not intended to insult or outrage Russians.

Our position is that any form of terrorism cannot be justified under any circumstances in the world.

We extend our deep condolences to the innocent victims of the tragic incident and their families and express our deep regret for any distress that has been caused by the publication of the cartoons.

We hope that Korea will deepen its friendship with Russia on the occasion of their 20th anniversary of diplomatic normalization this year and we will also do make our utmost efforts for this goal.

There is a note atop the online Opinion page, "Regrets Over Cartoons," which says

The Korea Times carried two cartoons depicting the bomb attacks on the Moscow metero on page 9 of its March 31 and April 2 editions. The cartoons are part of a syndication service from a cartoonis..

and continues into the piece quoted above. It wouldn't be right to hold the Times accountable for creating the cartoons, or to think it's the only paper in the world that carried the cartoons. The Times is responsible, though, for publishing them, and for choosing to carry the cartoonist who so many foreign readers in Korea found objectionable.

In the first post on this topic earlier today we learned that two Russian English-language news sites were claiming that editors were fired over the cartoons. In the second we read an article in the Korea Times on April 1st about the reshuffling with no mention of the cartoons, with blogger Monster Island exchanging emails with the cartoonist in question. For what it's worth, the cartoonist says nobody was fired.

I guess it will be interesting to see how this plays out, and a shame if several years of really shitty cartoons everybody hates becomes a free-speech issue and not a quality one. I'd hate to see any rallying around these cartoons, ones that have over the past couple years pissed off pretty much every English-language blogger in the country, if that counts for anything. It's probably appropriate that the paper has been unresponsive to the complaints of expats living in Korea and only commented on the cartoons after some Russian netizens got involved, potentially damaging Korea's reputation overseas.