Cartoon that angered South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol returns to comics festival
The prize-winning cartoon was first featured in 2022 but was controversially removed following objections from the Yoon administration
Yoonsukyeolcha by Park Se-eun from Chonnam Arts High School will be included in the annual Bucheon International Comics Festival as part of a retrospective show of prize-winning works from 2021 to 2025, the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency announced on Wednesday, as reported in The Korea Herald newspaper. It can be viewed from September 26 to 28 at the Korea Manhwa Museum.
The satirical work came in second overall in the nationwide student cartoon and webtoon contest organised by the agency in 2022. The name of the work combines Yoon’s name and the word yeolcha, meaning train in Korean.
It shows a Thomas the Tank Engine-like locomotive with Yoon’s face on it being driven by his wife. Sword-wielding prosecutors who are after the couple can be seen on board the carriages while people flee in terror in front of the train. A destroyed building labelled the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family lies in its path – a nod to Yoon’s controversial presidential pledge to abolish the ministry.
When it was first displayed in 2022, it came under fire from officials in Yoon’s administration.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a stern warning to the agency as the terms of its sponsorship stipulated that sexually explicit, violent or political works should be disqualified. The ministry cancelled its sponsorship of the 2023 festival and drastically reduced state subsidies to the agency, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper.