As soon as NCT 2021‘s album “Universe” was released, SM’s famous boy group NCT came under fire for inappropriate behaviour during the comeback live broadcast. Specifically, when the emergency alarm went off during a 4.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Jeju Island, 3 members Mark, Doyoung and Johnny started singing and dancing to the song “Earthquake” before being stopped by other members. Not long after, all 3 members apologized on their personal SNS, but the way they posted apologies on Instagram Story (which automatically disappear after 24 hours) only enraged Korean netizens even more.
While the earthquake controversy has yet to subside, NCT members continue to draw criticism over their reaction in a similar situation in the past. Notably, this was “exposed” not by an anti-fan but an ex-fan of NCT on a famous online community in Korea.
The controversial action of NCT members mentioned in this post happens to be quite similar to their insensitive reaction to the emergency earthquake alarm for which they are getting criticized at the moment. About 3 years ago when NCT was in Spain, when they heard the sirens going off on the street, Mark and Haechan started dancing to NCT 127‘s song “Firetruck“.
The OP said she/he was not only shocked by Mark and Haechan’s actions but also by the reaction of the whole fandom. She/he said:
“The fandom never thought it was problematic. But to me, I’m still fascinated that this didn’t become problematic and nobody talked about it… I can’t understand the fan thinking this is something “nice” either. Use your common sense. Siren sound means that there’s an emergency. So how can they think of doing something like that when they hear it? On top of it, seeing them dance and singing along to an earthquake announcement makes me realize that they’re probably living in a different world I am. People who are able to read the room and have common sense will never act like that
Seriously maybe it’s because idols have such a short amount of time learning about stuff, but as a human, I can’t understand them..”
The NCT fan community and Korean netizens have had a lot of varied opinions about this article. While fans continued to defend them by saying it is possible that the members were unaware that a siren meant to signal an emergency had occurred. Meanwhile, Korean netizens argued that anyone can guess that sirens sounding is not a good thing to be able to sing and dance along to as Mark and Haechan did.
- [+275, -307] To be honest, this is freaking obaㅋㅋㅋ Do you really think that they would know there’s an emergency just from a siren’s sound? They can blow the siren just from traffic rules violation too? At this rate you guys are just trying to drag them
- [+174, -30] Mark’s fans always blame people like Jungwoo, Haechan, Chenle, etc. for ‘tainting’ him and make tons of excuses for him for this reasonㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ So he’s the one getting tainted? Your brat has always lacked common sense and mannersㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
- [+146, -155] Haechan never fails to be intertwined in every controversyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why is Ryujin even dating him… She’s f*cking losing
- [+74, -53] I feel like they just acted unconsciously here. Of course they need to be criticized for the earthquake incident, but this is nitpicking what they did. It’s not like everyone is in panic whenever you hear a siren, if they saw a firetruck or ambulance in front of them, I bet people usually just think ‘I hope there’s nothing wrong” and if you’re driving a car, you’d move around, since sirens are more common than earthquake news, aren’t people usually numb to it? This is just a stretch… I bet people are gonna call me NCTzen trying to defend them but I can prove I’m another group’s fan
- [+70, -6] People are here nitpicking OP’s post because of her example, but nobody said that sirens should be considered something to panic over?ㅋㅋㅋ What OP is saying is that most people would probably just ignore the siren’s sound, but nobody would actually dance on it?ㅜㅜ It’s true that their actions can’t be reasonedㅜㅜ Nobody is accusing NCT members of not worrying about hearing a siren? Why are the comments here turning them into the victims..
- [+60, -3] What’s up with Mark?
Do you think the fact that Mark and Haechan danced to the sirens was something to be criticized?