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Time of India
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Karina's Fashion Choice Ignites Political Controversy in K-Pop
The Fashion Choice That Shook K-Pop Nation In a world where even the color of your socks can spark political debates, aespa's Karina learned this lesson the hard way. The 24-year-old K-pop sensation found herself at the center of a massive controversy that would make even the most seasoned politicians sweat. It all started with what seemed like an innocent Instagram post - Karina sharing a picture of herself wearing a black jacket adorned with red patterns and the number "2" emblazoned on the side. The photo, apparently taken during her time in Japan, was accompanied by a simple red rose emoji. Little did she know, this seemingly harmless fashion choice would unleash a storm that would dominate Korean social media for weeks. The timing couldn't have been worse. South Korea was in the midst of election season, and Karina had unknowingly violated one of K-pop's most sacred unspoken rules - the "no color, no gesture" guideline that strictly prohibits idols from displaying anything that could be interpreted as political support. When Fashion Becomes Political Warfare The backlash was swift and merciless. Online communities erupted with users dubbing her "conservative Karina," "No. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like So sánh mức trượt giá: Hợp đồng tương lai (CFD) Bitcoin vs Ethereum IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo 2 voter Karina," and "patriotic Karina" - terms that in Korean internet culture are loaded with political implications. The red color and number 2 were particularly problematic because they directly corresponded to Kim Moon-soo, the conservative People Power Party candidate who was represented by red and held the number 2 position on the ballot. What makes this situation even more intense is the context of South Korean politics and entertainment. The country's entertainment industry operates under an invisible but ironclad rule of political neutrality, especially during election periods. This isn't just a suggestion - it's treated as gospel truth that can make or break careers. The "no color, no gesture" rule extends far beyond what most international fans might imagine. During election seasons, K-pop idols are expected to avoid wearing red (People Power Party), blue (Democratic Party), yellow and green (Green Justice Party), and other colors associated with political parties. It's a level of political sensitivity that would seem almost absurd in other entertainment industries, but in South Korea, it's deadly serious business. The Apology Tour That Broke Hearts Months after the initial controversy, Karina finally broke her silence in a deeply emotional YouTube interview on veteran singer Jung Jae-hyung's channel "Fairy Jaehyung." The interview, which went viral immediately after its Sunday evening upload, showed a visibly shaken Karina taking full responsibility for her actions. "I really wanted to say that I never meant anything of the sort," Karina said, her voice heavy with emotion. The sincerity in her words was palpable as she continued, "I felt so sorry because the fans worried about me so much. I wanted to say again that I am sorry about concerning the fans and other people". But perhaps the most heartbreaking part of her apology was when she revealed the impact on her fellow aespa members. "It was obviously something that I needed to hear because it was me who did it, but it was so difficult watching the members suffer, too," she admitted. This revelation highlighted how individual controversies in K-pop groups often become collective punishment, affecting innocent members who had nothing to do with the original incident. Karina explained that the outfit choice was purely practical - she was cold and needed the jacket while out with her agency staff. "We posted the pictures wearing the jacket because it was cold outside and I wanted to communicate with the fans," she said. "We deleted the post after I got a call about it. I realized that I had been ignorant".
![[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea's deep political divide](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwimg.heraldcorp.com%2Fnews%2Fcms%2F2025%2F06%2F12%2Fnews-p.v1.20250612.fbdf37056067408098493d80c92a54c3_T1.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea's deep political divide](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkoreaherald.com.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Korea Herald
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea's deep political divide
Lee Jae-myung of the slightly center-left Democratic Party of Korea began his presidency with a whirlwind of activity after winning a decisive victory in the recent presidential election. Though only ten days have passed, the election seems like a distant event. As with other elections, the results offer insight into the current state and future direction of South Korean politics. This was the ninth election held since the 1987 democratic reforms that permitted the direct election of the president to a single five-year term. Since then, no party has won more than two presidential elections in a row, and power has shifted from center-right to center-left groups four times. Similar shifts between parties have occurred in National Assembly elections, which are held every four years. These shifts suggest that South Korean voters are evenly divided. Lee Jae-myung's recent victory underscores this pattern. Going into the election, most polls predicted he would win over 50 percent of the vote, but he ultimately won 49.4 percent. Park Geun-hye is the only presidential candidate since 1987 to win a majority of the vote, having won 51.6 percent in 2012. Left-wing candidate Kwon Young-guk got just under 1 percent of the vote. Combined with Lee's 49.4 percent, center-left candidates earned a total of 50.4 percent. Though this is a majority, it is only slightly above the 50.2 percent that center-left candidates earned in 2022. In contrast, Kim Moon-soo, the leading center-right candidate from the People Power Party, won only 41.2 percent of the vote. This is the second-lowest percentage for a candidate from the established center-right bloc since 1987. Only Hong Joon-pyo did worse in 2017, winning 24 percent of the vote. Controversial right-wing candidate Lee Jun-seok won 8.3 percent of the vote, bringing the total for center-right candidates to 49.5 percent. Though Lee Jae-myung had a large lead over second-place candidate Kim Moon-soo, the combined vote total of center-right candidates has remained close to 50 percent in every election since 1987. In 2022, center-right candidates, including election winner and now disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol, garnered 49.4 percent of the vote. In 2017, Moon Jae-in won the election with 40.1 percent, and center-right candidates received 52.2 percent of the vote. These statistics suggest that South Korea is evenly divided between center-right and center-left groups, each dominated by a large party with historical roots. This means elections are decided by a small shift in votes or division within one of the groups. Both occurred in the recent election, helping Lee Jae-myung open a large lead over Kim Moon-soo. The same thing helped Moon Jae-in win in 2017. A look at any map of recent election results explains why neither group can win by a large margin. The results of the 2025 election show the country divided evenly between east and west, with the People Power Party in red on the right and the Democratic Party in blue on the left. There are splashes of red in the Gangnam area of Seoul and in rural areas of North and South Chungcheong Provinces, but most of the area is blue. The Honam region, centered on Gwangju, is deep blue. The east is dominated by red, with the Yeongnam region, centered on Daegu and Busan, being heavily red. This sharp division between Honam and Yeongnam has been a constant in South Korean elections since 1987. Though this division has lessened slightly in recent years, it remains significant at all levels of politics. Democratic Party candidates show strength in Busan and Ulsan, which have attracted residents from around the country. However, People Power Party candidates rarely win anywhere in Honam. The problem for the Democratic Party is that Yeongnam's population is twice that of Honam. Nationally, voters in their 40s and 50s overwhelmingly supported Lee Jae-myung, offsetting Kim Moon-soo's strong support in Yeongnam. Meanwhile, Lee Joon-seok's anti-establishment rhetoric attracted male voters in their 20s and 30s, who supported him in large numbers, confirming the emergence of another generational divide that first appeared in the 2022 presidential election. Ultimately, the election was triggered by the successful impeachment of Yoon Suk-yeol for briefly imposing martial law in December 2024. Although polls showed that 60 percent of voters supported impeachment, Lee Jae-myung received just under 50 percent of the vote. This suggests that established regional and generational divides influenced voters more than the desire to repudiate Yoon by punishing the People Power Party at the ballot box. These deeply entrenched divides are likely to continue to influence South Korean politics for years to come. Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Providence, Rhode Island. He can be reached at robertjfouser@ The views expressed here are the writer's own. -- Ed.
Korea Herald
04-06-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Seoul shares open higher after presidential election
South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, a day after the presidential election. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 40.94 points, or 1.52 percent, to 2,739.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.51 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.81 percent. Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the liberal Democratic Party, won the election, defeating Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party. The vote followed the ousting of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after martial law was imposed in December. Lee began his five-year term earlier in the day following the National Election Commission's approval of his victory in a plenary session. In Seoul, most large-cap stocks advanced. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.26 percent, and chip giant SK hynix soared 5.78 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor climbed 0.49 percent, and its sister affiliate Kia jumped 1.24 percent. Leading steelmaker POSCO Holdings rose 1.23 percent and Korea Aerospace Industries, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, jumped 5.97 percent. Among decliners, POSCO's smaller rival Hyundai Steel fell 0.73 percent and leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries shed 3.86 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,376.55 won against the greenback at 9:15 a.m., down 3.45 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tuesday's Mini-Report, 6.3.25
Today's edition of quick hits. * In Gaza: 'More than two dozen people were killed early Tuesday after the Israeli military opened fire close to a controversial aid distribution point in southern Gaza, local health officials said, the third time in three days that Palestinians were killed in the area.' * A new day in South Korea: 'A liberal lawyer has ousted South Korea's troubled ruling party's presidential candidate on Tuesday, ending months of political instability that began with a botched declaration of martial law. Lee Jae-myung will be sworn into office Wednesday after his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party, conceded the race.' * A step backwards in Poland: 'Conservative Karol Nawrocki won Poland's weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count on Monday. Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%.' * Political uncertainty in the Netherlands: 'Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders' PVV party left the governing coalition Tuesday, in a move that is set to topple the right-wing government and will likely lead to new elections. Wilders said his coalition partners were not willing to support his ideas on halting asylum migration.' * An overdue breakthrough in Tulsa: 'The city of Tulsa, home to one of the most horrifying racial-terror massacres in U.S. history and the people who tried to cover it up, has announced a $105 million reparations package that will put dollars and actions toward redress.' * Difficult diplomacy: 'The Trump administration is proposing an arrangement that would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at low levels while the United States and other countries work out a more detailed plan intended to block Iran's path to a nuclear weapon but give it access to fuel for new nuclear power plants.' * It'll be interesting to see how long this pause lasts: 'The Department of Education has not gone through with a plan to garnish Social Security checks over defaulted loans, a department spokesperson told The Hill. 'The Department has not offset any social security benefits since restarting collections on May 5, and has put a pause on any future social security offsets,' Ellen Keast, the spokesperson, said.' * A struggling cultural institution: 'Sales of subscriptions for the coming season of programming at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are down by about $1.6 million, or roughly 36 percent, compared with last year.' See you tomorrow. This article was originally published on
Indian Express
03-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Who is Lee Jae-myung? South Korea's newly elected president
Lee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea's liberal Democratic Party, has won the presidential snap election. According to the National Election Commission, Lee secured 49.25% of the vote, while his conservative rival Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party garnered 41.40%. With 98.51% of ballots counted, Kim conceded defeat and congratulated Lee on his victory. Lee is expected to become South Korea's next president, serving a single five-year term. The snap election was triggered by the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office on April 4, 2025 . His conservative rival Kim Moon-soo, from the People Power Party (PPP), conceded defeat and congratulated Lee on his win. 'It's highly likely I will become president,' Lee told supporters gathered outside his home in Seoul, according to Reuters. A former human rights lawyer and two-time presidential contender, Lee, 61, has long been a prominent figure in South Korea's liberal politics. Raised in poverty and once a factory worker, he rose to prominence as the outspoken mayor of Seongnam and later as governor of Gyeonggi Province. Lee led the impeachment drive against former president Yoon Suk-yeol, who was removed from office in April following his declaration of martial law during December's protests. Lee's campaign focused on restoring democratic norms, reducing inequality, and easing tensions with North Korea. Kim Moon-soo, the conservative candidate and former labour minister, trailed Lee with around 42.9% of the vote. He struggled to gain support due to his links with Yoon and failed to unify the conservative vote. Lee Jun-seok, a third-party conservative candidate from the New Reform Party, also ran in the race and later conceded defeat. Lee Jae-myung won the presidential snap election by capitalizing on his role as an opposition leader, particularly by standing against Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law bid and promising to guide the country out of its political and economic turmoil. His victory was also influenced by the crisis within the People Power Party (PPP) following Yoon's impeachment. The PPP's internal conflicts, including infighting over Kim Moon-soo's candidacy and unclear positions on Yoon's legacy and martial law declaration, weakened the party's support base Lee is expected to be sworn in as South Korea's 14th president on Wednesday. He will serve a single five-year term, as required by the South Korean constitution. Nearly 80% of the country's 44.4 million eligible voters participated – the highest turnout since 1997, according to the election commission.
