Earlier, on the 13th, a small group claiming to be ARMY held a wreath protest in front of HYBE’s headquarters in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, demanding Suga’s departure from BTS.
The protest stemmed from an incident on the 6th of the previous month, where Suga was caught riding an electric scooter while under the influence of alcohol. The protestors argued that Suga’s actions were detrimental to BTS’s group activities and demanded his departure, displaying phrases like “Min Yoon-gi, leave,” “You’re the one who put us in this position,” and “Before you face the photo line,” urging Suga to step down.
An anonymous fan, claiming to have participated in the truck protest, told the press, “Individual ARMY members sent the wreaths; this was not a coordinated action by the fandom,” and explained that the protest was held because HYBE and BigHit Music did not take any action after issuing a false statement regarding Suga’s incident.
At the time, there was a stark contrast in reactions from international ARMY. International fans issued a statement saying, “BTS antis are trying to tarnish BTS’s reputation by sending wreaths demanding the expulsion of a member (Suga). The ARMY community did not participate in these actions and continues to support all seven BTS members.”
When the controversy over Suga’s drunk driving arose, wreaths calling for his resignation were placed in front of HYBE’s headquarters. Provided by a reader.
These international fans continued their support with hashtags such as #SugaStays, #ARMYdidNotSendWreaths, and #BTSisSeven, making these trends on X (formerly Twitter). They opposed the demand for Suga to leave the group.
Recently, opinions have emerged suggesting that the individuals behind the wreath protest and truck demonstration demanding Suga’s departure might be fans of other groups masquerading as ARMY.
This suspicion arose after the email of the account organizing the truck protest was exposed, revealing that the account operator had tagged NCT photos and posts related to former executive Min Hee-jin on the photo platform Pinterest.
When confronted with these allegations, the account operator explained, “The photos on that account were saved for personal work purposes, and I am willing to prove my identity as ARMY.” However, it was later discovered that this operator had bookmarked NCT and NCT 127 content on a related entertainment community site, raising further doubts about the truthfulness of their explanation.
Lee Ji-young, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and author of “BTS Art Revolution,” stated on her X account on the 31st of last month, “Those who are calling for a BTS member to leave are not ARMY. There are only a few dozen of them, and it has been revealed that the instigator is actually a fan of another group.”
She added, “I’ve heard that some antis are planning to tip off the media while pretending to be ARMY. Therefore, we are informing the Korean press as follows.”
Source: daum
