By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Police issued a summons Tuesday to a cartoonist who put insulting phrases about President Lee Myung-bak in a cartoon printed in a gazette. Wonju Police Station in Gangwon Province said it asked the cartoonist, identified as Choi, to turn himself in to the station.

The 44-year-old cartoonist drew a cartoon where members of a family pay respect to a monument of a soldier who died defending the country in the city's promotional paper.

Police have launched an investigation of the cartoonist since last Friday after city government officials filed a complaint against him for ``interference with business.''

On one side of the monument, there are two abusive sentences subtly hidden in the form of patterns. One says ``he should be killed.'' About 22,000 copies of the ``Happy Wonju'' gazette were printed and delivered to residents there and in nearby cities.

Kim Ki-yeol, mayor of the city has already apologized for the incident, while the city government reprimanded its officials in charge of making the paper and fired the cartoonist.

However, Choi said, in an interview with a local daily in the province, that the cartoon was not appropriate for the paper but pointed out that contemporary cartoons were lifeless if they showed only the bright side of society.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr