Afreeca Freecs Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram and Kingzone DragonX Kim “Rascal” Gwang-hee are in hot waters after making suicide-related jokes in in-game chat and being associated with an extremist online community, Ilbe.

Aiming and Rascal were revealed to have made jokes around Korea’s ex-president Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. The jokes are associated with Ilbe, a right-winged extremist online community which is notorious for generating defaming content around left-winged individuals and groups, including the ex-president Roh.

In DCInside, a user posted a screenshot of Aiming in the game chat, during the time he was in SKT T1 under the name SKT T1 Aiming. Aiming was seen joking about “Nomuu “the Splattered Tofu” Hyun”. Nomuu is a derogatory term for ex-president Roh, making references to the manner of his death.

Another screenshot revealed that Rascal also used the word “Woonji”. Woonji is another word coined by Ilbe, that also makes a fun of ex-president Roh’s manner of death.

After the story went viral in Korean communities, Kingzone DragonX swiftly released a statement and an official apology regarding the incident.

<모 커뮤니티 제보를 통해 확인된 본 팀 김광희(Rascal) 선수의 과오에 대한 킹존 드래곤X의 공식 사과문> 재차 발생한 본 팀 소속 선수의 자질과 소양 문제로 팬 여러분들과 타 팀 선수 분들 그리고 관계자… Incredible Miracleさんの投稿 2018年3月5日(月)

<An official letter of apology by Kingzone DragonX regarding the misbehavior of Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee>

We have repeated disappointed our fans, the players of other teams and the staff due to the misbehaviour of our team’s players. We deeply apologize.

We are acutely aware of the heavy responsibility around this incident. We will immediately begin re-educating the offending player. We will also become stricter in our recruitment process so a similar situation will not arise in the future.

Independent of any decision made from LCK Board, the team internally will penalize the player so the player may reflect and regret his actions.

Again, we deeply apologize to the fans supporting our team, the players of other teams and the staff members.

Afreeca Freecs is yet to release a statement regarding this matter.