An AI Webtoon has Gained National Attention in Korea
Wow, an AI webtoon worth reading.
Before we get into the meat of this post, it’s important to know identity of one Chun Doo-hwan. Here’s the first line of his Wikipedia entry.
Chun Doo-hwan was a South Korean army general who served as the fifth President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988.
Here’s the second.
A member of the Democratic Justice Party, he ruled the country as a military dictator following a successful coup in December 1979.
In addition to being a military dictator of Korea, he came into power after the previous dictator of South Korea, Park Chung Hee, was assassinated by the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (you can’t make this up).
Chun was known for exacting quick economic growth through authoritarian and violent means. This included concentration camps, military action against civilians, embezzlement and so much more.
While Chun’s own presidency ended with a democratic election, he was eventually arrested in 1995 on charges of conspiracy and insurrection with an ongoing investigation into charges of embezzlement and corruption. The Korean courts found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison with a fine of 220 billion KRW (approx. 148 million USD).
In the end, Chun’s sentence was commuted, the government was only able to collect a portion of the fines, and he lived out the rest of his life in Seoul until he died on November 23, 2021.
Memoirs of a Dictator’s Grandson
And the story would likely end there for the family of Chun Doo-hwan… if not for the exploits of his grandson, Chun Woo-won.
From December 4th to the 15th, Chun Woo-won uploaded AI-generated webtoons apparently describing his upbringing and childhood under Chun Doo-hwan.
It’s not pretty.
The webtoons were published to his Instagram account and feature a small lamb, “Mongeuly”, being abused by his grandparents and experiencing life as an outcast in Korea and the United states. One scene features Mongeuly being beaten after complaining to his grandfather about being car sick, then being dragged away by security guards. Another features Mongeuly watching on as a teacher does his schoolwork for him resulting in straight-A’s.
This isn’t the first time Chun Woo-won has made headlines in Korea. Back in 2022 (months after his grandfather’s death in 2021), he was featured heavily in the news after referring to his grandfather as a mass murderer and claiming that his family had more than enough assets to pay the fine imposed on his grandfather by the Korean government (Kyunghyang News).
Shortly after this bombshell report, Chun Woo-won admitted to the use of illegal drugs on a livestream. He then voluntarily returned to Korea where he was convicted and senteced to a suspected prison term in 2024.
The Instagram account in question has since deleted the image posts… but not before the media got ahold of them and screenshotted them for posterity.
Right now, Mongeuly’s Instagram account is mostly empty save a few posts and a link to a Youtube Channel where, as I type now, the host is livestreaming with the title “Reading the Bible Live” while the chat is filled with comments supporting Mongeuly and expressing their love for the short-lived comic.
AI Developments in the Korean Webtoon Industry
Toptoon released multiple AI-generated animated titles on their English platform (Toptoon Plus) over the course of Q4 2025 (eDaily).
The Seoul iT Academy in Hongdae showcased the work of students who created titles using gen-AI in July (Kyunghan Sports).
The president of the Webtoon Association and Bucheon City council had a meeting discussing the necessity of establishing an AI-webtoon creation platform also in July (Electronic Times).
Kakao Entertainment expanded the use of their AI, Helix, to produce short video content for their Kakao Page platform in April (Newsis).
Soosung Webtoon announced they would be following up the success of their AI-webtoon Draco-Knight Commander with more follow-up titles for the global market in April (AsiaE).
RIDI launched an AI-assisted translation/typesetting tool, Prodifi, back in March (Money Today).