A South Korean politician who is leading in presidential polls, Kim Moo-sung, has apologised for a racist joke directed at a Nigerian student which drew wide-spread condemnation.
The politician had early on Friday likened the skin colour of a Nigerian student, 26-year-old Babalola Joshua Adekunle, to that of coal briquettes.
This happened at a charity event attended by many foreign students including Adekunle, where the 64-year-old leader of the country’s ruling Saenuri Party delivered coal briquettes to the needy, in the country’s capital, Seoul.
He told Adekunle while smiling: “Your face colour is the same as the briquettes’ colour.”
After the statement attracted condemnations from different quarters, he went on Facebook to offer his apologies to the student and those who might have felt offended by the statement.
The student however said he did not take offence at the politician’s statement, stressing that he had no reason to be ashamed of his skin colour.
A recent survey about the support levels for candidates in the upcoming December 2017 presidential poll in the country placed Kim in the first position with 22.5 percent.