Nano Mask? Sewol Ferry Symbol?… President Moon's 'Yellow Mask' Misunderstanding Stir

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Shinwon Yoon] On the 17th, President Moon Jae-in appeared at the Cabinet meeting held at the government Seoul office wearing a yellow cotton mask, sparking an unexpected controversy. Various theories arose, including that the yellow color symbolized the Sewol ferry disaster.

On that day, President Moon attended the Cabinet meeting wearing a yellow cotton mask. This was in line with the recent decision for public officials to take the lead in using cotton masks as citizens experienced inconvenience due to disposable mask supply issues.

However, on various social networking services (SNS), questions were raised whether the mask was the recently popular "nano mask" or "Sewol ferry mask," since most other attendees wore white or blue masks.

In response to the controversy, Yoon Jae-kwan, deputy spokesperson of the Blue House, explained, "The yellow mask worn by the president was made by community activists in Daejeon and is being distributed to vulnerable groups. Since the end of last month, reusable cotton masks have been produced and donated to vulnerable groups, and this mask was given to the president, who wore it out of gratitude."

The Blue House explained that after hearing the news that they would use "cotton masks" in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the community sent masks to President Moon. Moreover, the masks they sent were all coincidentally yellow in color.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.