Intro for March 18, 2025

Dear Gossips,   

This is by no means a deep or unique observation but what I love about travelling is how it can remind you of how narrow our perspectives can be. My algorithm has long known that I’m super into Korean entertainment and has been feeding me K-content for a long time. Now that I’m actually in Korea, my feeds are dominated by K-entertainment news. And political news…that does not involve the person dominating the news in the west!

On Saturday we came out of the subway and accidently joined a protest. The Constitutional Court of Korea is currently deliberating the case of President Yoon Suk Yeol. On Saturday protestors against the president took over city streets calling for his removal. There was also a rally held by his supporters and between the two events, the roads were jammed, the trains were packed, and the police were out in full force. But at no time in the three hours that we spent in that area did we feel a threat to our personal safety. It was a surreal thing to witness as a foreigner after all these years of American-dominated news coverage. According to The Korea Herald, the Court is is expected to deliver its ruling some time this week. 

From a pop culture perspective, over the weekend, people here are not obsessing over Severance or The White Lotus (which makes it easier to avoid spoilers because I am actually kinda anxious about missing so many episodes while I’m gone) but which celebrities attended the Jennie and Aespa concerts. Jungkook, for example, was one of the star guests at Aespa. How are these fans so good at clocking what their faves look like behind their face masks?! 

JK of course is still serving in the military but should be discharged in June along with RM, Jimin, and V (with Suga to follow shortly after) so this is likely one of his final leave periods during the final stretch. 

The other major celebrity story here in Korea that’s also a huge deal across the east is the Kim Soo-hyun scandal and the revelations that he allegedly groomed Kim Sae-ron who died by suicide last month. I posted about this on Friday, following the lengthy denial that his agency, Gold Medalist, released in a desperate attempt to gain back some public favour… which didn’t work. 

Instead it only seemed to anger her family who then authorised, through the YouTube channel that they’ve been working with, yet another intimate photo of him to be shared. The photo shows Soo-hyun from the back washing dishes with a long t-shirt and no pants on apparently in Kim Sae-ron’s apartment. Yesterday her family members, accompanied by a lawyer and the host of that YouTube channel, held a press conference to denounce Kim Soo-hyun, Gold Medalist, and another YouTuber whose videos they claim did irreparable harm to Sae-ron’s mental health and reputation. They are planning on suing the YouTuber and are considering suing Soo-hyun and Gold Medalist unless their conditions are met. The primary condition is public apology. They want him to admit that their “relationship” (again this is how the media here is describing it) began when Sae-ron was underage and acknowledge her role in the founding of the company. As noted last week, Soo-hyun has only (finally) admitted that he and Sae-ron were together when she became an adult. Should he meet those conditions it would be tantamount to admitting that he groomed her – and it sure f-cking looks like he did with all the letters and pictures that have come out so far. Apparently there are over 100 images that the family has accessed with a dozen released so far.

This has been the top trending story for a week with prominent placement on Naver, which is Korea’s Google. If you’re unfamiliar, Naver dominates Google in Korea, and Google frankly doesn’t work that well over here. It’s my first experience travelling since we became dependent on our phones where Google isn’t the go-to. That’s another example of perspective shift. Just because something works and is useful in one place doesn’t mean that applies to all places. 

Kim Sae-ron’s family said to reporters yesterday that they had sent letters to all mainstream news agencies about their daughter’s situation and no one wanted to tell her story – this is what I wrote in my post on Friday, and it turns out that that indeed is why they decided to work with a problematic YouTuber with his own shady track record. There are people with a deeper understanding of Korean media who have compared this far-right YouTube account, Hoverlab aka Garo Sero Research Institute, to InfoWars. Hoverlab supported President Yoon’s martial law declaration – which is why he’s been impeached – and is known for its invasive celebrity reporting, like sneaking into celebrity funerals and filming. 

That’s just a surface level description of what’s happening here but my point is that there are parallels between east and west and how the media landscape has been evolving or, some might say, devolving. As a student of media and culture, it’s been wild to have a front row seat to the way this trend is playing out here. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey