By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

A Korean man was fined 1 million won ($855) Friday for insulting an Indian professor. This is the first time in Korea that a person has been punished for racist remarks.

The Incheon District Court fined the 31-year-old man, identified as Park, for humiliating the foreigner through abusive and racial language on a bus in July.

After the incident, the 28-year-old Indian professor Bonojit Hussain accused Park of calling him ``dirty'' and ``smelly.'' Initially, police allegedly discouraged Hussain from filing a complaint but he persisted. Human rights groups also launched a fact-finding team to investigate the case.

Police filed a personal insult charge against Park as there is no appropriate clause in Korea's Criminal Law against this kind of an offense.

According to Hussain, Park even insulted his Korean female friend, who was traveling with him on the bus asking whether she is happy to date a black man.

Following the incident, civic activists formed an anti-racism committee and asked the human rights watchdog agency to look into the case.

Some lawmakers have been pushing for a bill to ban discriminatory practices against foreigners based on either color or nationality.

The case has raised awareness of racial issues in the country where 1.2 million foreigners reside.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr