Tsundere + Taliban = Tsundeban?

The actions of a few Korean internet users have been arousing criticism from within South Korea. The internet users in question created parodies that describe the Taliban, which abducted 23 Koreans and killed one of them, as nice people known as "Tsundeban."

As of July 27th, several parodies were uploaded onto a website called DC Inside, a popular forum in South Korea that specializes in photos and images.

"Tsundeban" is a made-up word created by combining "Taliban" and "Tsundere" in Japanese. "Tsundeban" suggests that although the Taliban seems cruel, its members are actually warm-hearted people.

Earlier this month, Taliban fighters kidnapped 23 Korean Christians from a bus in Afghanistan, and announced that "they would be killed within 24 hours unless South Korea withdrew its 200 troops (actually engineers, doctors and medical staff) from Afghanistan." After giving a 24-hour extension, one of the Korean hostages was killed.

Internet users have been spreading these "Tsundeban" comics every time the Taliban postpones the deadline of the negotiation. The satirical comic makes fun of the situation of the hostages and the Korean government. For example, one of the hostages says, "give me a hamburger," and a negotiator from the Korean government says "I don't have any interest in the negotiation."

On the other hand, the comic describes the Taliban as nice people who pity the hostages, and postpones the deadline of the negotiation when a hostage begs: "don't kill me."

Such sentiments have existed since the beginning of this abduction incident. Although some internet users are calling this negotiation a "Taliban comedy," it's not something to be joked about. A man was killed, and 22 people are still in danger. Comments such as "Who could enjoy this manga? Human lives are in danger" and "I reported you to the police" were posted on websites and blogs where these comics are being distributed.

Although the general sentiment is that it's not right to joke when people's lives are in danger, many some Korean users believe the situation is silly, as the hostages shouldn't have went to a dangerous place like Afghanistan to spread Christianity. According to Christian Today:

Last year, the South Korean government tried to stop a group of 2,000 Korean Christians travelling to Afghanistan for a peace conference, fearing for their safety. But 900 of them still came to Afghanistan, causing an uproar in the staunchly Muslim country -- where many accused them of being evangelical missionaries -- before they were all deported. Afghanistan's ambassador to South Korea was later sacked for issuing the group with visas, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Police are showing concerns regarding this situation, and have asked users to report the "thoughtless" internet users.

The "Tsundeban" comic is based on Churuya-san, a popular 4-koma series created by Utsura Uraraka.

Source:
- Kuki News
- Yahoo! Korea
- Kajisoku.org