Ministry of the Interior and Safety: “Not a depiction of police officers from a specific country”...Apologizes for error in Safe Korea Exercise promotional materials

[The Financial News]  The Ministry of the Interior and Safety apologized for failing to catch an error in promotional materials for the Safe Korea Exercise, which showed a star instead of a hibiscus flower on a police officer’s insignia.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said in a statement on the 15th, “We apologize for failing to thoroughly review the promotional materials before distributing them,” adding, “We will be more thorough in managing promotional materials for the Safe Korea Exercise going forward.”
A report on the 14th said that police insignia shown in promotional materials for the Disaster Response Safe Korea Exercise featured stars instead of hibiscus flowers, like those on Chinese and Vietnamese police insignia. It pointed out that promotional materials generated using artificial intelligence (AI) had not been properly reviewed, resulting in banners containing errors being put up nationwide and the images spreading online as well.
The ministry said, “In the process of using generative AI tools to create figures from all walks of life, including those from the military, police, fire services and civic groups, we mistakenly rendered police officers’ rank insignia in a star-like shape,” but clarified, “This was not a depiction of police officers from any other specific country.”
The ministry ordered the immediate recall of the promotional materials. It plans to distribute corrected materials, with the police insignia changed to hibiscus flowers and the logo on firefighters’ hats corrected, for use in the Safe Korea Exercise, which begins on the 19th.

[email protected] Lee Bo-mi Reporter