absurd? embarassing? NO!

The first rule of any community is that the moderator is always right. Maybe this is not a very good rule... but I'm sure that if you create your own community, then you yourself will set exactly the same rule there. This is an inevitability, just like the fact that a newborn duck immediately follows its mother to the water, and not in the other direction.

The second thing I would like to say is that the moderator should take care of his contest, check our cells, their compliance with the Steamit rules, so he, as a policeman, always suspects the worst first, and rightly so, these are his functions as a moderator. In the event that he was wrong about your account, if his suspicions are wrong, and you are not the owner of a bunch of identical accounts - in this case, excuse him and do not be offended by the moderator. Understand, he's just trying to do the best job he can.
Well, in the second case, if he is right, then all the more you have nothing to be offended about, lol .... Whether Koreans participate in the contest or not, of course, participate! This is an international community, it is for everyone. But if you don't interact with other contestants, it will be bad participation. That's all I wanted to say. Good luck to you!