NBC Analyst Sent Home For Stupidity Over Korea

(RTTNews) - U.S. television network NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), has fired one of its Olympic analysts after his controversial comments about Japan during Friday's opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Games angered Koreans.

NBC's Asian correspondent Joshua Cooper Ramo, who is also co-CEO of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger's consulting firm as well as a board member of Starbucks and FedEx, remarked that South Korea is grateful for Japan's role in its economic development.

"Every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation," said Ramo, during the march by Japanese Olympic athletes at the opening ceremony Friday.

Korea was under Japan's colonial role from 1910 to 1945. The two Asian economic powers have yet to fully reconcile over atrocities committed by Imperial Japan during the occupation. This includes the issue of "comfort women," or Korean women used as sex slaves by the Japanese military during the World War II.

Ramo's comments triggered a torrent of enraged reaction on the Internet and social media, with Koreans demanding an apology from NBC. The Organizing Committee for the PyeongChang Olympic Games also said it lodged a complaint immediately after it became aware of the remarks.

NBC has apologized for broadcasting the insensitive remarks by Ramo. An NBC official later told Korea Times that Ramo's assignment has ended.