Controversy Over Jokbal Restaurant Draining Blood with Cleaning Boots: "Maliciously Staged Video"

Photo of the 'Most Delicious Jokbal' website screen capture.

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] A video showing a man stepping on jokbal (pig's trotters) while still wearing the rubber boots he wore outside or during cleaning at a jokbal restaurant in Gyeonggi Province has sparked a hygiene controversy. As the controversy grew, the franchise headquarters explained that it was a "maliciously staged video."

On the 30th, 'The Most Delicious Jokbal' posted an apology letter from both the headquarters and the store owner on their official website. The headquarters stated, "We recognize and reflect on the seriousness of the incident caused by lack of management and supervision, and have posted an official statement and apology letter," adding, "We acknowledge our failure to prevent this in advance and sincerely apologize once again."

They continued, "The headquarters will clarify the circumstances confirmed internally, apologize, and promise to prevent recurrence," and explained, "According to our findings, the employee of the store maliciously staged and filmed the video without the store owner's permission after the store owner rejected the employee's request for a salary increase."

Photo by YTN Broadcast Screen Capture.

According to the store owner involved in the controversy, from January 15 to 17, a Chinese-Korean employee named A worked part-time at the store removing blood from jokbal. However, the owner fired A after three days due to A not following the manual. The footage of A wearing rubber boots while removing blood was filmed by another Chinese-Korean employee named B.

Later, due to a sharp drop in sales following the implementation of social distancing level 4 in July, the owner suggested to B a reduction in working hours and salary adjustments. Feeling resentful, B allegedly threatened the owner by showing the video of A and also reported the matter to the Ministry of Labor, according to the owner's claim.

The owner explained, "Except for 2-3 days when A worked, our store never removed blood from jokbal as shown in the photo. If that were the case, B would obviously have other videos and would have reported those as well," adding, "A intentionally wore rubber boots to remove blood, and B deliberately filmed it and threatened me."

Earlier, YTN reported that a man named A wearing rubber boots stepped into a tin basin and stepped on jokbal to remove blood at a jokbal chain store in Osan, Gyeonggi Province. Particularly, the boots were said to be the same ones A wore outside the store while smoking or cleaning, which sparked public criticism.

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