Yoon Seok-yeol Train,’ winner of the 2022 National Student Cartoon Contest Gold Prize (Image source: captured from an online community)
BUCHEON, South Korea, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A satirical cartoon that once ignited a political storm in South Korea is set to reappear at the Bucheon International Comics Festival this month, three years after its initial exhibition was cut short under government pressure.
The work, known as Yoon Seok-yeol Train, won first prize in the student comics competition in 2022. It depicts a train with the face of then-President Yoon Seok-yeol, his wife Kim Keon-hee seated in the driver’s cab, prosecutors brandishing swords in the passenger cars, and citizens fleeing in alarm ahead of the locomotive.
The Korea Manhwa Contents Agency said Wednesday that the cartoon will be included in a retrospective of prize-winning works from 2021 to 2025, on view from September 26 to 28 at the 28th edition of the Bucheon festival.
When first displayed in 2022, the piece drew sharp criticism from the Ministry of Culture, which issued a stern warning to the agency, stripped it of official sponsorship, and slashed state subsidies. The controversy led organizers to suspend student prize exhibitions for two years.
“This year we decided to show all winning entries from the past five years, and that includes Yoon Seok-yeol Train,” a festival official said, noting that the decision restores continuity to the student showcase.
The reinstatement of the cartoon underscores how artistic expression remains intertwined with politics in South Korea, where cultural institutions have often faced pressure when creative works collide with the sensitivities of power.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
