Kolmar Korea chairman forces employees to watch anti-Moon YouTube video

By Kwak Yeon-soo

Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han / Korea Times file

Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han has been in the hot seat for playing inappropriate content from YouTube for his employees at a monthly meeting, which included mockery against the government and women.

While discussing how Korea should cope with Japan's export curbs, Chairman Yoon shared the video to about 700 attendees during the meeting held at the company's headquarters in Seoul on Aug. 7.

In the video, the YouTuber expresses strong disapproval of President Moon Jae-in's foreign policies, saying “The fact that Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe didn't punch President Moon in his face by now proves that Abe is a great leader.”

After the incident, a user of Blind, an anonymous chat app for verified employees, posted a message that the edited content from YouTube shown at the meeting was upsetting, deeming it inappropriate because of the use of slurs, expressions of misogyny and political bias.

“Chairman Yoon showed us the video, saying 'Let's think about this together,'” said the user who claimed to be a Kolmar Korea employee.

After public sentiment soured on Kolmar Korea, the company issued a public apology on Friday.

“The video was intended to help the understanding of bad external conditions, such as the deteriorating Korea-Japan relations over historical issues and the U.S.-China trade war,” Kolmar Korea said in an official statement.

However, the cosmetics and biopharmaceutical firm claimed the chairman did not intend to support the YouTuber's stance or stir up employees.

“Chairman Yoon wanted to express that the business community needs to come up with practical action plans, not to be swayed by political opinions.”

The company official firmly stated that they did not play a part of the video in which the YouTuber mentions that Venezuelan women are driven into prostitution to survive and the same thing will happen in Korea if the economy collapses.

According to Kolmar Korea, monthly meetings are part of its company culture, aimed at cultivating humanity and reinforcing communication between management and employees.

The YouTuber, known as Leeseob TV, has over 185,000 subscribers as of Friday. The video in question surpassed 1.64 million views the same day.

The public expressed mixed reactions over the company's action.

“The content has logical fallacies. Why would Kolmar Korea show this at a monthly meeting? That's insane,” one Blind user commented.

“The YouTuber's way of speaking could've aroused repulsion, but I mostly agree with his words,” another user wrote.

The share price of Kolmar Korea closed at 47,750 won ($39.50) on Friday, down 4.88 percent from the previous session.

Kolmar Holdings, the holding company of Kolmar Korea, closed at 20,300 won, down 8.56 percent from the previous session.

In 2017, Chairman Yoon was indicted on charges of making a profit through borrowed-name security accounts and evading billions of won in taxes.