By Dong Sun-hwa
Kang Sung-hoon, lead vocalist with 1990s South Korean boy band Sechskies, has come under fire for criticising the appearances of current K-pop idols.
The controversy flared when a former fan uploaded a YouTube video titled “Thoughtless Remark 1”. It wasn’t stated when the video was filmed.
“I think idol stars these days are ugly. They look extremely unattractive,” Kang said during a talk with fans on the clip. His fans agreed, saying: “Yes, you are right.”
“Ever since the debut of [South Korean pop duo] TVXQ [in 2003], there have been no handsome idols,” he added.
When a woman asked his thoughts on K-pop boy band BtoB, he said: “If I had a chance to launch a group, I would prioritise the appearance.”
“Shouldn’t celebrities look good? They should have good skin and boast an aura.”
As of Tuesday, the video had received almost 200,000 views and drawn many negative comments.
“Know yourself – you are a con man,” one commentator wrote in an apparent reference to Kang’s past. In 2011, he was convicted for not repaying 1 billion won (US$844,000) he had borrowed from three people between 2009 and 2010, and received a suspended jail term.
Kang made his debut as a member of Sechskies in 1997. After the group disbanded in 2000, he launched a solo career.
In 2016, Sechskies reunited and released a comeback album, “2016 Re-Album”. But Kang left the group in December 2018 after being sued over the abrupt cancellation of fan meetings in Taiwan in September that year.
Read the full story at the Korea Times.
