Seol apologizes for 'Naked History' Cleopatra errors

Seol Min-seok apologizes to his viewers for making factual errors on "Seol Min-seok's Naked World History" on Tuesday evening. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Seol Min-seok apologized late Tuesday evening after claims were made of factual errors on a recent episode of "Seol Min-seok's Naked World History."

The production crew working on tvN's popular history program apologized Monday evening.

"The production crew sincerely apologized to the viewers last night, but in my opinion, they did nothing wrong. This is a television program with my name, therefore it is my responsibility to take all criticism," Seol said in the video posted online.

"I made an error during my lecture in the second Cleopatra episode of the program, and one of the program's advisors pointed out [the error]," he said, adding that he will be better prepared in the future.

Kwak Min-soo, head of the Korea Institute of Egyptology, wrote online that the program got everything wrong about Cleopatra in its Sunday episode.

During the program, Seol said that the Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was established by Alexander the Great, and the names Cleopatra and Ptolemy are titles. Kwak said these assertions are not accurate.

Much of what was said on the program deviates from the history, and "it's hard to mention the errors one by one," Kwak wrote.

"Talking about historical facts and rumors together is definitely a good strategy to draw attention when teaching history, but it's important to clearly distinguish the two," Kwak said.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]