Earlier this month, an official visit to Washington, D.C. by South Korean president Park Geun-hye was going rather well. Which was gratifying, in light of recent criticisms of Park’s administration, such as the charge that she’d appointed people with “questionable ethical standards” to important posts. Park addressed a joint session of Congress, and had a summit meeting with Obama.

Yes, all seemed hotsy-totsy, and then came the incident with the spokesman and the intern and the nonexistent panties.

Yoon Chang-Jung, Park’s newly-appointed press spokesman, was well-known as a trenchant right-wing political columnist before getting the post in Park’s 3-month-old administration.

During Park’s visit to Washington, Yoon encountered a young Korean-American intern working at the South Korean embassy. She had been assigned to help with the visit, and specifically assigned to Yoon, an assignment that the two interpreted differently. The first news reports described an encounter in a hotel bar near the embassy. The intern later told police that Yoon “grabbed her buttocks without her permission,” according to the Washington Post. Yoon said he had merely put his arm around her waist. Or “patted her waist.” Or just tapped her waist. To cheer her up. (Uh huh. And why was she gloomy?) Of this waist-region incident, Yoon was to say, “I belatedly have realized that I was not fully aware of American culture.”

But later reports had him admitting (back in South Korea) that his waist maneuverings had possibly included touching her hip. And yes, her buttocks. (The greater waist area.) Due to his failure to fully comprehend American culture.

And after the waist-connected incident, there was a murkier incident the next day, in which Yoon was in his hotel room and called the intern to come up. When he answered the door, he was wearing “inner wear.” Due to being “off guard.” (Oh? Not expecting someone to be on the other side of the door?) Grilled by the presidential secretariat, he is reported to have clarified: “I was not wearing panties.”

The day of the panty-free incident, Yoon went back to South Korea, one jump ahead of the law. The rest of the Presidential party went on to Los Angeles, where Park announced that Yoon was fired. Back in Seoul, the opposition is talking cover-up.

Park’s Blue House Chief of Staff Huh Tae-Yeol said, “We offer our deepest apology to all South Koreans, the victim, her family and Korean expatriates overseas for the incident.” He said the “unacceptable and very shameful incident” had left him speechless. It’s interesting that in addition to the intern and her family, the community to whom he apologizes are Koreans who share his embarrassment.

Later Park said, “I am sorry that an unsavory incident, which a public servant should never be involved in, occurred near the end of my visit to the U.S. and greatly disappointed the people.”

I’m sorry stuff occurred. And my appointee was involved.

Neither Park nor Huh buy the cultural differences excuse. But neither do they show any notion of trying to prevent such things from recurring.

In a live TV appearance, Yoon himself said, “I implore her to forgive me if I had hurt her due to differences in culture. I offer my apology to her.”

What can he mean by “differences in culture” – that his behavior was okay in Korea? The outraged reactions of other Koreans don’t support that. Did he think his behavior was okay in the US? The freewheeling off-with-all-panties US? If so, wrong again. The only place where it’s okay to call underlings to your hotel room and greet them sans panties is in a certain class of movies. Which do not pretend to be documentaries.

It’s possible the cultural difference that’s bothering Yoon is about telling. About reporting. About going to the police.

In any case, it’s a lousy excuse, and a lousy apology.

I feel that I should explain to translators that in English, saying a man wasn’t wearing panties is like saying he was braless. It muddles the issue.

The panty silliness shouldn’t detract from the fact that the allegations the intern has made are serious. To have the job of helping a foreign official navigate American political business does not mean being that official’s personal comfort woman. To have that highly placed official make sexual advances is wrong and disgraceful.

And he could at least have put a slip on.