The truth about the controversy over aespa Winter’s real personality during her school years
Winter of aespa recently got embroiled in a controversy regarding her personality in middle school, where she was accused of sexually harassing EXO Kai. However, the truth has been revealed.
Recently, on some Korean online communities, a controversy about aespa Winter’s personality during her school days was posted. According to the posts, an AskFM account of someone named Kim Minjeong was discovered. While this account has the same name as Winter (real name Kim Minjeong), this person was also born in 2001, comes from Yangsang City of Gyeongsang Province, which is the same as aespa Winter. Due to these reasons, a rumor started to spread that the AskFM account was used by Winter when she was in middle school.
What makes this account so controversial is that the answers are mostly filled with profanities and racial jokes. Not just that, this account owner was an EXO fan, and was usually seen showing her interest for the EXO members in a very extreme way such as saying “This piece of trash”, “I’m h*rny,” “This f*cker”, “I used to have something for Chanyeol,” “(Kai) is so sexy with his 6-pack,”…
This is supposed to be something very normal, but as many doubted that this was Winter’s account, who would have been a middle schooler at the time, they criticized that she had a problematic personality. This was even more controversial considering how she is in the same company as EXO now.
This AskFM account has mentioned Kai in many of its answers. When asked: “Do you watch EXO Showtime? I know you gonna watch anyway but just asking” 7 years ago, this “Kim Minjeong” account has answered that, “Of course I do. I’m only waiting for the moment Kai takes off his top” along with a meme saying, “Your eyes are filled with racy thoughts.”
Screenshot photos of these AskFM answers were spread rapidly on all Korean online communities, such as theqoo, Pann, DC Gallery, Instiz, etc. Many people believed this account belonged to Winter, raising suspicions about her personality in the past. That’s why Winter has been receiving many criticisms, especially because of the comments that sexually harassed Kai. However, SM and Winter still remain silent about this controversy.
After that, a Twitter account called “@gimminj53119610” revealed herself as the owner of that AskFM account and claimed that it has nothing related to aespa Winter. On January 8th, @gimminj53119610 tweeted, “Hello, I’m Kim Min Jung, who graduated from Yangsang Joongang Middle School. Seeing the screenshots of my AskFM everywhere, I want to make something clear. Both Winter and I were born in 2001, but I don’t know her in person. I don’t know who came to read my AskFM and spread the answers online, but I’m really annoyed about what has happened.”
Moreover, when asked to verify herself, @gimminj53119610 posted photos of Yangsang Joongang Middle School yearbook and her ID card (although she asked everyone to stop spreading her ID information due to privacy reasons). Kim said she was the true owner of the AskFM account and claimed that both Winter and herself were “victims” of netizens, so she wanted this confusion to end. Kim also revealed that she has prepared to take legal actions against malicious comments.
In another tweet, Kim wrote:
‘Hello again, this is Kim Min Jung from Yangsan Joongang High School. I have read all of my AskFM tweets, online community posts, and comments. I am not satisfied with the way my personal information, as well as the personal information of my friends, is currently being spread widely on the internet. I will file a defamation lawsuit against those who do that.
Also please stop circulating the image of my resident identification card that I have shared for the purpose of verifying that I am the account holder. If you have shared the image anywhere, please delete it. I really don’t want to be harassed for this anymore and I hope the aespa member does too. Winter and I were both victims.’
Another tweet from Kim also expressed her resoluteness: ‘Don’t badmouth me and Winter. All malicious posts and comments will be collected and used in court. I won’t put up with this anymore.’
Following Kim‘s tweets, Winter‘s DC Gallery admins offered to help Kim with her legal battles. The admins also asked netizens for help in gathering ‘evidence’ of malicious postings/comments involving both girls.
