Korean broadcasting station MBC has come under fire for a now-deleted tweet about NewJeans‘ Minji, alluding to a past controversy.
NewJeans’ Minji | @newjeans_twt/Twitter
On January 21, Minji left Korea for Paris ahead of Paris Fashion Week. As expected, Minji captured the hearts of fans with her visuals and various outlets shared photos, including MBC.
However, while the photos were beautiful, netizens noticed that the tweet, along with the accompanying articles, actually seemed to “shade” the idol over a recent controversy.
Recently, Minji was made to apologize after a “controversy” stemming from a comment she made. On a broadcast with streamer ChimChakMan, the girls were talking about kalguksu and the various types of noodles. Minji subconsciously said to herself, “what is kalguksu?” in Korean.
Minji on the broadcast. | 케파민/YouTube
Netizens criticized Minji, claiming that she was “pretending to have a concept of a rich, luxurious girl who studied overseas.” It then led to Minji having to apologize, which many netizens thought was unfair to the young idol.
The reason it was brought back up was that when MBC shared the photos of Minji on X, they had the caption, ” “Kal-gak (sharp) beauty Guk-jejeok (global) Su-ryeoham (elegance),” and netizens noticed that the first syllables spelled “kalguksu.” “Kal-gak” or the word “sharp” isn’t normally the most common phrase used to describe “beauty,” so netizens thought it was obviously forced here.
The post has since been deleted.
In another article, they had the headline “Kal-gati (sharp on time) Guk-jeseon choolguk (boarding International flight) Su-hang (processing),” meaning “Processing Her Boarding The International Flight Right On Time.” It also had the first syllables spelling out “Kalguksu.”
Although the tweet was deleted on January 22, many fans still demanded an apology as just removing it showed that they noticed the huge criticism the post received, but not that they acknowledged why it was such an issue.
MBC deleted the tweets and both articles, only the other two are left without the disturbing headlines. Go Dae-hyun hasn’t apologized yet even though MBC is aware of what they did to Minji pic.twitter.com/R4Ezlqgc9g
— nil (@newjiram) January 22, 2024
What did this 19yo girl do so wrong for yall to keep bullying her like this??
Enough is enough she even gave a very unecessary apology for not knowing that damn food like just kys knetz if yall dont have anything better to do.
MBC APOLOGIZE TO MINJI
#GoDaeHyunApologizetoMinji pic.twitter.com/Ud7Kc5UXxB
— tiffy; iuzy’s mom~LOVE WINS (@byeolsatangggg) January 22, 2024
MBC APOLOGIZE TO MINJI#GoDaeHyunApologizetoMinji pic.twitter.com/NTL0TF0rkB
— sasa (@minhameowrin) January 22, 2024
.@imbc_news It’s not enough, we want you to apologize to Minji.
MBC APOLOGIZE TO MINJI #GoDaeHyunApologizetoMinji pic.twitter.com/QOPHGJG7ut
— 𐐂𝔸𝕝𝕖𝕩࿐ | #OMG (@ANewJeansA) January 22, 2024
MBC has yet to respond to the criticism.
Netizens want an apology after alluding to a past controversy!