I guessed as such (since no self-respecting artist with an iota of independent thought would be able to stomach working on something like this) Maybe this was labor camp for errant animators?

I don't know, from a purely technical standpoint this is as good as or better than like 3/4 of the American TV cartoons of the late 80s I've seen. This is golden era Disney compared to something like Glowfriends or Maxie's World or My Pet Monster.

Hehe.. Kim Jun OK

And yeah, I felt the same way with those insufferable Russian Wolf and Rabbit cartoons. It appears rotoscoped, at least at times, and overall looks like the style of Merry Melodies in its earlier days. Then the rabbit pulls out a NOKIA pager or something.

Love this text from their wiki page - "According to Animation Career Review, SEK is the 85th most influential animation studio of all-time"