Real Research Korea is an app that allows Korean citizens to vote on a variety of topics for the purpose of collecting data for research. The app conducted a survey for people to vote on which Korean celebrities that have been in various scandals should never be allowed to return to the entertainment industry. After 3,507 votes, the results were shared with the public. Participants were able to vote for multiple people.
The two nominees tied for first place were Seungri and soloist Go Young Wook, who both scored with 66.4% of people never wanting them to return to the industry.
Seungri is notoriously known for taking part in the “Burning Sun” scandal, also known as “Burning Sun Gate”. It has been one of, if not the, biggest scandals in South Korean entertainment, and the former idol was the club director at the Burning Sun club in which numerous sex crimes took place at in 2019. Several other Korean celebrities and police officers were found involved in the assaults, and Seungri was been sentenced with one and a half years in prison. He has since been released and is currently still making headlines for his actions.
Go Young Wook probably isn’t as well-known as Seungri, but he took part in equally terrible crimes, if not worse. He was convicted of sexually assaulting three minors between 2010 and 2012, and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in 2013. He also had to wear a monitoring ankle for three years after, and keep his profile as a sexual offender public for five years. He was released in 2015 and tried to return to social media in 2020, but was quickly banned on Instagram due to its policy of prohibiting sex offenders on the platform. He tried to open a YouTube channel just last month, but that too, got shut down following heavy netizen backlash.
Next up on the list is Steve Yoo (also known as Yoo Seung Jun), a popular soloist in the 1990s and early 2000s who received a score of 55.8% on the poll. His reason for being shunned by Korean citizens is much different than the past two, but still serious. After making several public promises to complete his mandatory military service (required of every Korean man between the ages of 18 and 35), he obtained U.S. citizenship as a way to avoid it. Due to his evasion, he was deported from South Korea and permanently banned from entering the country. He continues to fight the Korean government to this day to try to return back to his homeland.
Fourth on the results of the survey is singer G.NA, the only woman in the top five with a score of 40.8%. In 2016, she was revealed to have taken part in a prostitution scandal in which she was accused of being paid around ₩35.0 million KRW (about $ 26,400 USD) to have sex with an unidentified businessman in the United States. While denying the direct sex accusations, stating that her friend who was working as a broker for high-end prostitution lent her money during her hard times. Due to the money lent, he asked her to meet the business man as payment for the loan while G.NA thought their meeting was for romantic reasons.
Finally, the last person on the list is singer MC Mong with a score of 37.6%. Like Steve Yoo, he was also accused of trying to avoid military service by getting several of his healthy teeth extracted after delaying his enlistment for seven years. While the court sentenced him to one year probation, they were never able to 100 percent confirm he had his teeth pulled for draft dodging purposes. Due to his draft dodging attempts, the public continues to look down on him, despite his success on the music charts.
How do you feel about these celebrities and their potential return to the entertainment industry?
