Korean care

The public backlash against Korean Air

Comic opera comes to mind. Or perhaps farce would be a better description. Some Koreans – more than 85,000 of them – last month signed a petition demanding the government order Korean Air (KAL) to stop calling itself Korean Air.

Admittedly 85,000 is but a small proportion of the nation’s 74 million inhabitants but it shows the depth of feeling across the country over some of the goings on at the nation’s flag carrier, which the petitioners argue is badly affecting the country’s image around the world. And not for the first time. The latest episode involved Cho Hyun-min, President of the KAL Hotel Network and youngest daughter of the airline group’s chairman Cho Yang-ho. She was accused of screaming and throwing a water bottle at an employee.