On August 27, Koreaboo reported that Real Research Korea, an app allowing South Korean citizens to vote on various topics for data collection purposes, conducted a survey to identify celebrities who had been involved in scandals and whom the public no longer wants to see in the entertainment industry.
With participants allowed to vote for multiple names, the survey received a total of 3,507 votes. From this, the system recorded the five most hated former stars in South Korea today.
Tied for first place were Seungri (former Big Bang member) and solo singer Go Young Wook, both receiving 66.4% of the votes.
From being one of K-pop’s top idols, Seungri became a “national outcast” due to his involvement in the Burning Sun scandal. South Korean media have considered this one of the most shocking scandals in the entertainment industry, if not the biggest. The youngest member of Big Bang was the owner of the Burning Sun nightclub (Seoul, South Korea), where numerous sexual crimes occurred in 2019.
In May 2022, Seungri was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison. This verdict was met with outrage as it was deemed too lenient for someone facing 9 charges, including sexual assault.
After his release, Seungri continued to attract controversy with his indulgent lifestyle, partying, and showing no remorse for his past actions.
Go Young Wook, though less famous than Seungri, faced equally serious charges. He was convicted of sexually assaulting three minors between 2010 and 2012. After being exposed, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2013. The man born in 1976 was also required to wear an ankle monitor for 3 years post-release and maintain a publicly accessible sex offender record for 5 years.
Released in 2015, Go attempted to return to social media in 2020 but was unsuccessful due to Instagram’s policy against sex offenders. In July, he launched a YouTube channel, but it was quickly shut down due to strong backlash from netizens.
Next on the list is Steve Yoo (also known as Yoo Seung Jun), a solo artist famous in the 1990s and early 2000s. He was rejected by 55.8% of voters. While the reason for Yoo’s fall from grace differs from the top two celebrities, it remains serious.
Source: Koreaboo
