Well, then this may be a small loophole: I followed the link in the e-mailed topic reply notification... when I logged in, I then clicked on the 'forums' link in the front page and got the Korean Lesson. So I went back to the e-mail and followed that link again and was able to post a reply.

My account was being blocked for some reason, so I couldn't actually get to the "turn forum off" button. Yes, the problem was probably just resolved as you posted that reply - meaning the forum was fixed at that point.