The foundation devoted to promoting ex-President Roh Moo-hyun's legacy publicly condemned the recent caption used by Lotte Giants, carrying allegedly depreciative phrases toward Roh, urging the professional baseball team to ensure such incident does not occur again.
The Busan-based baseball team on Monday posted footage of the game against the Kia Tigers, who are based in Gwangu. As the players celebrated a hit, a caption reading "Moohan (infinite) clapping" appeared over 1st baseman Noh Jin-hyuk's name on his jersey, making it seem like "Noh Moohan clapping."
That is a play on words: "Neomuhada" means excessive. But Noh's last name is spelled the same as Roh in Korean, and that wordplay has long been used by some Koreans to mock the president, who died by suicide.
The Giants issued a public apology on Tuesday, and said it had not been aware of the connection.
"The team said it had not been aware of the possibility that the phrase could be associated (with Roh). But considering that it was just after the game played against a Gwangju-based team, and just before the anniversary of the May 18 Democratization Movement and the day of Roh's death (May 23), this cannot be considered a simple mistake," the foundation argued in an official statement Tuesday.
Roh, a left-wing politician, attended the memorials for the 1980 democratization movement in Gwangju every year he was in office. Gwangju is a political stronghold of the left, while Busan and the surrounding region traditionally supports conservative politicians.
The Lotte Giants have not been publicly associated with a specific political group, but the longtime allegiance of Busan citizens to the conservatives have sparked speculation that the recent gaffe had been intentional.
The foundation said the team should punish those responsible, and stressed that mockery and contempt against a person cannot be tolerated as being for fun or a mistake.
Officials visited the team office to deliver a letter of complaint in person later Tuesday.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
