Korean American leaders have publicly responded to a best-selling comic book in Seoul that is loaded with anti-Semitic images.

Part of a popular series that aims to teach children about other countries, Monnara Iunnara (loosely translated to Far Countries, Near Countries) by Professor Rhie Won-Bak features chapters of propaganda claiming that Jews control the economy and the media, and that they profit from war. It also claims that Sept. 11 happened in New York because the city had the largest concentration of Jews. 

One illustration shows a man hiking up a hill only to be blocked by a wall with a Star of David. The accompanying text is translated as, “The final obstacle [to success] is always a fortress called Jews.”

As the images trickled into the U.S., Korean American leaders say they were outraged. “We think it’s pretty irresponsible for someone in Korea to make such statements,” says Gie Kim, president of the Korean American Coalition’s Washington, D.C., chapter. “He must realize that there are 2 million Korean Americans in the United States. In order for us to continue thriving in mainstream U.S., you have to be more sensitive to American issues.”

In February, KA leaders in Los Angeles met with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, to offer their support. Last month, Cooper traveled to Korea to protest to the book’s publisher, Gimm-Young. In an e-mail to KoreAm Journal, Cooper noted that the book’s stereotypes are “not indicative of my experiences with Korean Americans.”

“Nonetheless,” he wrote, “this is a very popular author who has reached millions of Koreans and therefore must be confronted and the harmful untruths corrected.”

Author Won-Bak has stated that he will change the chapters on the Jews, but will not apologize. “The Jews are the invisible force that controls the U.S.,” Rhie told the Associated Press. “I wrote the chapter to let people know that you can’t understand the U.S. without knowing the Jewish community.”

Jane Pak, 29, of Las Vegas, who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood on the East Coast, says that when she heard about the book, she felt a sense of “embarrassment and disgust.” 

“So much of who we are is so similar to the Jewish community,” says Pak. “We should be finding the common ground, collaborating and creating alliances.”