Super Junior Kim Hee-cheul's rebuke and Choi Si-won's agreement, the controversial "upside-down taegeukgi" was eventually taken down.
Recently, various online communities and social media saw heated debate after Incheon city put up a banner near the back gate on the 6th commemorating the 81st anniversary of Liberation Day.
The banner bore the phrase "the day the light of the 81st Liberation Day is restored" and depicted an independence activist holding the taegeukgi with both hands and standing.
However, some criticized that the taegeukgi pattern was flipped so that the top was blue and the bottom red. Super Junior Kim Hee-cheul also joined the criticism, leaving a comment saying "X went crazy," and Choi Si-won showed agreement with an emoticon. Actor Choi Philip also rebuked, saying "I simply cannot understand, within common sense, why someone would hang the taegeukgi upside down."
On the other hand, Professor Seo Kyoung-duk said, "If you look closely, the taegeukgi is being held by a person and is shown from below looking up, so strictly speaking it is not a crooked taegeukgi," and offered the opinion, "Given that the local government was producing it anyway, it would have been better if they had made it so that anyone could recognize it as the correct taegeukgi; I have many regrets about that."
Amid such debate, Incheon city ultimately decided to take down the controversial taegeukgi banner. According to Incheon city on the 9th, while the design represented not a misdrawn taegeukgi but the image of an independence activist waving the taegeukgi seen from below, they judged that it could cause misunderstanding among citizens when viewed flatly and removed the banner on the 8th, two days after installation.
An Incheon city official said, "We failed to pay close enough attention to how it would appear when viewed flat. We will inspect more carefully in the future to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."
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