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The head of a state-run think tank has sparked controversy with an offensive remark about women. Korea Information Society Development Institute chief Suk Ho-ick was delivering a lecture on the Korean IT industry at a breakfast meeting with 30 business figures at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. Talking about the importance of the female workforce as a growth potential for the 21st century, he said,
“Women are more developed creatures than men since they have one more hole.” Women's studies scholar Min Ga-young of Hongik University said the KISDI head’s remarks demonstrated a pervasive view among men of women not as equals but as sex object. Suk on Thursday said he had no intention to denigrate women and was merely emphasizing the important role of women in the future.
Meanwhile, Gwangmyeong Mayor Lee Hyo-seon has invited censure again with offensive remarks about African-Americans. Lee was forced to give up his membership in the Grand National Party after he made derogatory remarks about Jeolla Province last July. On Monday, Lee made the faux pas at a luncheon with a visiting delegation from the Washington branch of the presidential Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification. “When I visited Washington D.C., I saw niggers swarm all around the city," he said. "How can you live in such a scary place? I was so afraid that I didn’t come out of my hotel at night.”
The delegation were in the Korean city to form a twin relationship with the Gwangmyeong branch of the unification council. The mayor on Thursday said he made the remark “because my guide warned me not to go out at night since there were many African-Americans in Washington. I don’t exactly remember whether I used the word “nigger.” He promised to apologize to the delegation as soon as they arrive back in Washington.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705180020.html
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