[Yonhap News Photo]
A senior education ministry official in charge of South Korean school textbooks faces an end to his career for his class-conscious comment advocating what he called a hierarchical US society where colored people should live as a controlled class.
In its ruling late Tuesday, the government's Central Disciplinary Committee endorsed the sacking of Na Hyang-wook. He would be banned from becoming a public servant for five years if the education ministry accepts the committee's decision.
Na, who headed the ministry's policy planning bureau, has been under fire for making controversial remarks comparing the Korean people to "dogs and pigs" at a dinner with journalists on July 7 that sparked public anger.
In a taped text released by journalists, he advocated a hierarchical society like the United States where colored people are hard to join a governing class due to high social and invisible barriers. He allegedly said South Korea should adopt a social system in which 99 percent of people are being controlled and fed by a ruling class.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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