LG Display Co., the world's second-largest maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, said Monday that it has decided to accept an apology from a Samsung executive who insulted LG engineers in a public event.

The company said it has received a letter of apology from Kim Hyun-sik, vice president of Samsung's visual display business, regretting his use of a swear word to insult engineers at the rival company during a press event to present differences in their 3-D TV technologies.

"We spoke about the letter with our engineers and decided to accept the apology because we believe Samsung Electronics and the executive in question have gone through self-reflection," LG said in a statement.

A company spokesman said by phone that LG is no longer considering legal action against the Samsung executive for damaging the reputation of its engineers. It said last week that if reports of the alleged remark turned out to be true, the company might consider taking legal action against the Samsung executive.

The letter from the Samsung executive is in response to LG Display's request last week for Samsung to verify that Kim had publicly derided LG engineers with a swear word.

The two companies, which make 3-D panels using competing technologies, have been engaged in a fierce month-long battle of words to gain ground in the 3-D technology market.   

LG Electronics Inc., an LG Display affiliate, fanned the flames after it unveiled a new 3-D TV lineup last month using the film-type patterned retarder technology, claiming that its TVs are more advanced than those made by Samsung.

Using unusually harsh rhetoric, Samsung lashed out at its smaller rival earlier this month for launching "dishonest" marketing campaigns about their 3-D TV technologies.

LG Display reiterated in its latest statement that it hopes to host a public preview event with Samsung for consumers to evaluate and compare the two companies' 3-D TVs, a proposal that Samsung has rejected repeatedly.

(Yonhap News)