Top K-pop idols all live by a strict set of rules, but in this pressure cooker environment,
the temptation to stray from management's chosen path often becomes hard to resist.
From shocking, mysterious deaths to revenge and blackmail, here are the biggest scandals
to ever hit K-pop.
The K-pop community was dealt a devastating blow in December 2017 when SHINee's lead singer
Jonghyun tragically took his own life at age 27.
SHINee fans gathered in the streets of Seoul on the day of his funeral, dressed in black
and grey as a mark of respect for their fallen idol.
According to Yonhap, the singer's sister raised the alarm after receiving some troubling text
messages from him.
Jonghyun reportedly told her,
"Please let me go.
Tell me I did well."
By the time help arrived, it was too late for her brother, who was found unconscious,
and passed away soon after at a Seoul hospital.
Grief turned into outrage when it became known that the idol had taken his own life because
of the pressures put upon him by the demanding K-pop industry.
"When you're onstage, when you're a K-pop idol, you need to be perfect, and those pressures
can certainly get to someone I would think."
Baek Ji-young is best known for two things: her booming ballads and a scandalous, intimate
video.
In 2001, the solo singer's career was thrown into turmoil when footage of her sleeping
with her manager was posted online, by none other than the manager himself.
According to the Korea Times, Kim Shi-won fled to the United States after releasing
the graphic video, where he was later arrested because Ji-young was a minor.
He was deported to face charges in South Korea in 2008, but Baek Ji-young's reputation was
already in tatters by then.
The singer revealed that at one point it became so dangerous to hold fan meetings that she
had to organize events at secret locations in South Korea's mountainous regions.
She recalled during her appearance at Star Gazing,
"I couldn't hold the meeting openly because I didn't want other people to find out that
the fans were my fans.
I was worried that they would be criticized because of me."
Baek was involved in a fresh scandal in 2018 when her husband, actor Jung Suk-won, was
arrested on meth charges.
She said from stage during a concert,
"I recognize my husband's misdeed, and as his wife, spouse and lifelong companion, I've
been deeply regretting it along with him."
Pressing charges against a celebrity in South Korea is risky business, as accusers are often
severely punished if the courts don't rule in their favor.
This is precisely what happened in the case of Park Yoo-chun.
In 2016, four women accused the JYJ star of assault, which the K-pop idol denied.
According to the Korea Times, the alleged assaults were said to have occurred between
2014 and 2016, with one reportedly taking place in the bathroom of a karaoke bar.
Judge Choi Jong-jin said,
"The bathroom of the adult entertainment facility in which [the accuser] claimed she was sexually
assaulted has a lock on the inside.
Considering that fact, it is difficult to understand why [she] did not leave the bathroom
or yell for help."
The judge went on to say,
"Even after [the accuser] left the bathroom, she stayed with Park Yoo-chun's friends to
hang out, and after Park Yoo-chun's party left, she was seen laughing and happily talking
to a waiter.
These facts confirm suspicions that [her] claims…were false."
The first woman to come forward was sentenced to 20 months in prison, while her boyfriend
and cousin were sent down to 18 and 24 months.
The judge claimed that the gang had done permanent damage to Yoochun's public image.
The singer-actor was eventually found not guilty on all charges.
While not the most famous member of K-pop sensation Big Bang, Seungri is certainly well-known
when it comes to scandal.
In 2012, photos were sold to a tabloid by a Japanese fan who claimed to have had a one
night stand with the idol.
The singer's name was tarnished after this, among fans and bandmates.
Seungri later apologized for the incident, revealing that he was shocked and frightened
when the drama unfolded.
He said during an appearance on South Korean show Incarnation,
"It was the first time in history that an idol became the center of a scandal like that.
The tabloid I was published in is very famous, they don't even bother to talk about anyone
who isn't famous.
It was my first scandal, but it was so big."
2013 was a rough year for G.O.D's Son Ho-young.
The singer and actor was sucked into a high profile scandal when his girlfriend of one
year was found deceased in his car.
According to Gangnam police, "a used briquette, an empty bottle of sleeping pills", and a
note were recovered by officers.
The note's contents caused a huge backlash against the idol.
She reportedly wrote,
"I feel disappointed by Son Ho-young."
Son was questioned for two hours in the presence of the deceased's family, but the idol insisted
he had no idea something like this was about to happen.
The singer's rep told K Pop Starz,
"The couple had little fights, but nothing big that could have led to this incident.
Son Ho-young is in great shock because he never imagined anything like this to happen."
Just days later, Son tried to end his own life using the exact same gas poisoning method
as his girlfriend.
Luckily for him and his fans, he wasn't successful.
When the singer lit a coal briquette inside his car, he accidentally set the vehicle on
fire.
The blaze was broadcast all over South Korean news.
His agency reported,
"Son Ho-young will need to be hospitalized for two to four days.
Although there is no damage to his health, he is in a very fragile state of mind and
needs to find stability."
In 2015, Korea reacted to a very public domestic violence case involving Kim Hyun-joong.
It all began the previous year when the SS501 singer's girlfriend, known in the case as
Miss Choi, filed a lawsuit claiming that Kim had beaten her repeatedly over a two-month
period.
As proof, Choi released her medical records, which showed evidence of various injuries.
It took Keyeast Entertainment a while to respond to the allegations made against their idol,
and when they did, they downplayed the whole thing, reportedly suggesting that it was just,
quote, "rough play" and that broken ribs weren't even that painful.
While this outraged certain sections of the public, Kim's fans took his side and even
began trolling Choi.
In the end, she dropped the charges, allegedly taking a payoff to keep quiet about the incident.
Unfortunately, Choi didn't stick to her end of the bargain and was hit with a counter-lawsuit
to the tune of $1 million.
What's more, after discovering that Choi had allegedly manipulated photos of pregnancy
tests to make it appear that Kim had made her miscarry, the Korean Prosecutor's Office
intervened.
In 2018, a pregnant Choi was found guilty of attempted fraud and defamation, and was
fined.
Since Super Junior debuted in 2005, Kangin has started to make headlines for all the
wrong reasons.
In 2016, Kangin was involved in a hit-and-run in Seoul's trendy Gangnam district, reportedly
plowing into a streetlight.
According to Korea Boo, the idol was allegedly under the influence of alcohol and he fled
the scene.
His management company, SM Entertainment, later confirmed:
"It is true that Kangin had a DUI accident.
Kangin contacted the police regarding the accident and received an investigation at
the arranged time.
Kangin is deeply regretful of his actions and will cease all entertainment-related schedules
to take some time to self-reflect."
SM had to apologize for Kangin's behavior again the following year after he reportedly
assaulted his girlfriend in a bar.
A statement from Label SJ said,
"We're deeply sorry for causing trouble.
Kangin had a quarrel with a friend at a bar, which caused a misunderstanding that ended
up with a police dispatch to the scene.
Once again, we're very sorry that he caused trouble while having time for self-reflection."
Solo singer Ivy found herself in hot water not long after her debut, when the video for
her breakthrough hit, "Sonata of Temptation," was found to have plagiarized Square Enix's
animated movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
In 2007, Engadget found that a Seoul Central District Court judge ruled that,
"[The music video] illegally used 80 percent of the storyline, setting, characters and
their styles of dress and their demeanors."
The producers of the video were fined 16 million won, or $17,400, and the video itself was
taken off the air.
"I want to be forgiven, more than anything."
But 2007 had a lot more scandal left in store for Ivy.
Before long, the singer was back in the tabloids when rumors of a lewd, private video emerged.
According to the Korea Times, an ex-boyfriend attempted to blackmail the idol's management
with a video of the singer he possessed, threatening to release the footage if he wasn't paid 45
million won, or around $50,000.
Instead of paying, Fantom Entertainment went to the authorities, who placed the man, referred
to as Yoo, under arrest.
Police confirmed that Yoo made threatening phone calls and harassed Ivy with text messages
on around 200 occasions over the course of a single month, and he also damaged her car.
The death of 90's idol Kim Sung-jae has fascinated K-pop fans and conspiracy theorists alike
for many years.
In 1995, the singer from Deux was found deceased in a hotel room with a total of 28 needle
marks on his body.
He wasn't known to have been a drug user, so these puncture wounds immediately raised
suspicion.
Traces of an injectable veterinary anesthetic were found in his system, and police were
able to prove that the drug had been purchased by Kim's girlfriend at the time.
His partner was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, but the ruling was later
overturned and she was acquitted.
Seungri's career in K-pop came to a controversial end in March 2019.
The former Big Bang member was at the center of what became known as the Burning Sun scandal,
a series of events that rocked K-pop, and South Korea, to the core.
The implications were so big that even the president got involved.
President Moon Jae-in said
"If the truth is not revealed, we cannot say it's a just society."
So what did Seungri do to make an entire nation turn on him?
It all started with an assault at the Burning Sun, a Seoul nightclub in which Seungri reportedly
had a large stake.
A customer was allegedly attacked by a staff member, and the subsequent investigation led
to the downfall of several K-pop stars.
"I was drinking, but not an amount that could knock me out.
Then, suddenly, I lost consciousness."
Drug use was supposedly common at the now-closed Burning Sun, and assault was reportedly a
common occurrence.
Meanwhile, Seungri was accused of recruiting sex workers for some foreign investors
that visited the club in 2015, something he's denied.
This all came to light when a whistleblower leaked a private group chat, the contents
of which were highly incriminating and deeply shocking.
Seungri and several others were caught sharing spy-cam footage of women in the club.
The idol denied filming any of the footage, but admitted to sharing it.
He announced his retirement on Instagram, conceding that this scandal was, quote, "too
big" to overcome.
Seungri reportedly faces three years behind bars for his role in the Burning Sun scandal,
but at the time of this video, he has not been sentenced.
South Korea has one of the highest rates of people taking their own lives in the developed
world, and the intense pressure that K-pop idols live with makes them a high-risk group.
While the country mourned the loss of SHINee lead singer Jonghyun in 2017, this problem
was thrown into the international spotlight in 2019.
It began in October, when Sulli was found lifeless, likely by her own hand.
The singer-actress had broken several K-pop taboos and was relentlessly targeted by trolls
as a result.
The following month, Sulli's friend, singer Goo Hara, was found deceased in her home in
similar circumstances.
"South Korean pop stars have had these kinds of issues with loneliness and despair and
melancholy and drugs problems and things like that."
That December, singer-actor Cha In-ha's body was found in his home after struggling with
depression and anxiety.
All Korean entertainers are held to a, quote, "strict moral code," according to Lee Jeeheng
of Seoul's Chung-Ang University, and women often get it worse than men.
She told Variety,
"Demonizing the K-pop industry alone doesn't solve the problem.
Sulli and Hara suffered more from misogynistic attacks than from K-pop fans."
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.