NCT's Yuta under fire for being friends with anti-Korean Youtuber

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

In a recent V Live, Yuta mentioned that Rheekun is one of his very close friends (he mentioned that they're "like brothers to him"). Rheekun is vehemently anti-Korean and misogynistic, and a few other claims.

• Rheekun posts controversial content and made inappropriate comments at women; it also said that he used the deaths of Jonghyun and Sulli for clickbait


• Koreans were outraged when they found out and began campaigning against him, demanding action from SM and that he be kicked out of NCT


• International fans are saying that it was a mistranslation (Yuta and Rheekun met recently), implying that they only just met; Korean fans are quick to point out that "met recently" could mean differently


• There's no clear information on Rheekun's nationality; some people claim he's Korean, some claim he's Japanese, some claim he's Japanese-Korean but identifies with the Japanese side more


• International fans claim Korean fans are overreacting; Korean fans point out this is beyond K-Pop and mention the dark history of Korea and Japan


• Some fans have created an e-mail template to send to SM


• As of writing, Yuta has since then unfollowed Rheekun on IG; the VLive in question was also apparently deleted by SM (allegedly due to copyright)

Source: kpopthoughts on Reddit, petillanteskz, pannchoa

Comments

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

i find this whole thing very interesting honestly

i don't know what to think

there are also alleged stories that the yter just uses clickbait titles but actually has reasonable video ideas; e.g. talking about the differences between korea and japan in a calm manner, but the people who said that were all japanese and not invested in this argument so take it with a pinch of salt

[dantethetaco.livejournal.com]

That last part is such bullshit (not directed at you). Fans have been taking that to clear Yuta of any criticism. While I don't speak japanese I went to a couple of his videos and the comment section is filled with comments like "Korean education brainwashes koreans to be anti-japanese", "Japan is the victim/Japan did nothing wrong", and basically all japanese right-wing anti-korean comments. And these comments seem to be in agreement with the video. So while I don't know what this Rhee kid is saying in his videos his comment section/the kind of following he has speaks for itself.

Futhermore I found this comment on twitter wich seems to align with that:

I speak Japanese, and I personally went to watch his vids. He is a korean citizen that makes lots of vids abt jpn and kor, and a lot of them are abt anti-jpn sentiments in kor. He and his supporters dont label themselves anti-kor, but they do seem to be on the edgier side of

— ↺ 韵韵¹²⁷ (@dream2theworld) July 27, 2020 (https://twitter.com/dream2theworld/status/1287602920502882305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Full twitter thread:
"I speak Japanese, and I personally went to watch his vids. He is a korean citizen that makes lots of vids abt jpn and kor, and a lot of them are abt anti-jpn sentiments in kor. He and his supporters dont label themselves anti-kor, but they do seem to be on the edgier side of politics. He holds the view that jpn no longer needs to apologise / pay reparations, and that anti-jpn sentiments are not right, which are both controversial. His supporters are also edgier than him, saying things like "kor uses jpn as their atm" or "kor has victim mentality".

At the end of the day I am not from kor nor jpn. And apparently, kfans and jfans aren't making a big deal of it (there isnt even a hashtag) and are sorting it out themselves. I'm j here to say that this guy def is controversial and offensive to some kor ppl"

[nudrive.livejournal.com]

Interesting how many intl fans have been talking about this when they don't know the full history between Korea and Japan.

Imo Koreans have the right to be mad/ upset/ hurt about this

[dallinferno.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge NCT fan and Yuta was one of my favourite members but this really soured him for me. I wonder why SM hasn't really reacted yet, I honestly expected an apology would already be issued and Yuta would be put on a break from group activites. Or something. Even if some of the anti-Korean stuff is proven to be a mis-translation or not as serious as implicated, he's still associating with someone who said vile things about women ...

All in all, I-fans need to shut up about mis-translations and how K-fans are overreacting and read up on the history of Korea and Japan - if there's anyone who has all the right in the world to be upset over this, it's the k-fans.

[magicpineapple.livejournal.com]

“All in all, I-fans need to shut up about mis-translations and how K-fans are overreacting and read up on the history of Korea and Japan - if there's anyone who has all the right in the world to be upset over this, it's the k-fans.”

Yep, you nailed it. Even tho, imo, I-fans cannot even begin to understand the intricacies of the relationship between SK & JPN, they should still educate themselves, like you said. Trying to brush this off to save oppa ain’t a good look - at this point, it’s not a kpop issue, it’s way deeper than that.

[dallinferno.livejournal.com]

Exactly, fans need to realize it runs way deeper than their oppa and kpop and the whole industry.

I have to admit that I wasn't very well informed on this (I only knew the basics, mostly about comfort women) but a friend whose family was directly impacted by the Empire of Japan explained a couple of things to me and it's just horrific stuff. I wish fans would take this as an opportunity to learn more about the history between the two countries instead of trying to "save" their oppa. Ugh.

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

a friend whose family was directly impacted by the Empire of Japan explained a couple of things to me and it's just horrific stuff.

Definitely horrific. I don't think horrific even explains it. I'm not from Korea but as someone whose families (maternal and paternal grandparents) were also directly impacted by Imperial Japan in the Second World War, these are things that they relived every day until liberation. And even after gaining freedom, they never slept soundly anymore. I did research on Japanese atrocities done to the Philippines for work and just reading about it kept me awake for weeks because I had nightmares after that. My grandparents used to refuse to talk about what happened to them until they realised Japan would never apologise to us properly and they didn't want the atrocities to be forgotten.

And it sucks because I like Yuta, he's my NCT bias, but to see him associated with someone like this when I know what my grandparents went through really really really hurts. This is a time when fans need to take a step back because this definitely runs way deeper than K-Pop.

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

i believe sm hasn't said anything bc: 1) 127 isn't doing anything at the moment and i can't see them doing a comeback anymore this year, 2) yuta is one of the least popular members. the issue wasn't even trending on pann iirc (unlike, for example, jaemin's dating scandal that was quite a big deal and they never addressed that either) and 3) nct as a whole might be popular with kpop fans, but they're still quite unknown with the general public. the gp doesn't know who yuta is so sm doesn't feel the need to address this bc it would also bring negative attention to nct. tbh as far as i can tell people aren't even talking about it anymore

[greasetastic-x.livejournal.com]

This is a mess. The more that comes out about the youtuber the messier it gets. There are so many conflicting stories but one fact remains he's a piece of shit.

I know that Yuta has said on national TV that Japan needs to apologize to Korea as many times as it takes for Korea to forgive them so that's where he stands. But he and SM need to put out a statement apologizing about this. Ignoring things don't make it go away.

Friendship is weird. People don't present the terrible sides of them right away, but once as you do find out that they're shitty what you do about it speaks woneees about your character. I would hope that someone wouldn't knowingly become friends with someone that they knew spewed hateful rhetoric.

[dongsaengkiller.livejournal.com]

100% this

[rose-potion.livejournal.com]

"it also said that he used the deaths of Jonghyun and Sulli for clickbait" anyone who do this kind of immoral, vile, cruel, hurtful things can rot in hell.
I understand the fans want Yuta out but did they alert Youtube about this trashman ? YT is always slow for this kind of things but if they got lots of messages they couldn't ignore the problem anymore.

[krissasaur]

I mean, people like Onision still have YouTube accounts so YouTube wouldn't care.

[kcaomei.livejournal.com]

any way you look at it, this really doesn't look good on yuta so i hope he is dealt with accordingly. i'm not from either country so i don't feel like it's my place to say re:the history, but misogyny is inexcusable and an instant cancel on anyone with even a hint of it.

as usual, i've seen i-fans doing the most to twist this any way they can to make him look innocent and "just because you have shitty friends doesn't mean you agree with them and are shitty too!!!!" i'm tired of fans not knowing their place in certain situations.

[dallinferno.livejournal.com]

If people willingly associate themselves with douchebags, I will most certainly judge them for it ... People really don't get how strained the relationship between these two nations is.

I saw an Italian fan put this into perspective pretty well for international (in this case European?) fans - they tweeted something like "If I had a friend who supported fascist / Mussolini ideals and was basically a fascist and decided to stay friends with them, then that means I'd accept and condone that kind of behaviour and opinions."

[kcaomei.livejournal.com]

i completely agree, i 100% believe you are the company you keep. that's a great example for explanation, hopefully that made things clearer for a lot of fans. unfortunately we both know, there's still too many that will be incapable of thinking yuta can do any wrong lol

i really wish in general, people saying things like 'i'm not educated enough on this issue to comment on the situation' would become more normalized instead of fans jumping to defense immediately and blindly swinging.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

I'm not into them or him so Irdc but ifans refusing to understand the Korea/Japan stuff just sends. They think it's no big deal when it is and will continue to be.

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

Uff just seeing the screenshots of his videos let’s me know everything I need to know, it’s disturbing af

[timetobegin.livejournal.com]

Yeah this is clearly a very bad look on him and he should have probably know better than to mention this publically.

[neoreulwonhae.livejournal.com]

This sucks. I thought Yuta was progressive and open-minded and cool; he'd said things like be yourself, looks aren't everything, it's okay to be gay, stuff like that... like it seemed he went out of his way to say things like that when other idols would probably stay away from it? I'm not sure, I'm not the hugest Yuta stan but I do stan NCT 127. I don't want to get too deep into what this youtuber is saying because it's probably depressing but I do hope Yuta is just an acquaintance and will stop being friends with him and apologize. I'm not Korean so it's not my place beyond that. Maybe he should be kicked out, if most Koreans think that's necessary. I don't know. It's really hard being the only Japanese member in a K-pop band (they're already so few in the K-pop industry, probably specifically because of this wrought history), and then to have this...I guess if I was Korean I'd be quick to anger, that a Japanese person inside Korean society might be this way. But from Yuta's personality and previous statements, it's just so weird that he'd even talk to a person like that...obviously he can't be that anti-Korean if he upended his life to move to Korea, learn their language and culture for years, and then promote that culture, all as a Japanese person... it's just weird. Hopefully it can be sorted out.

[iviih.livejournal.com]

Int. fans focus on the japan x korea thing but... why they ignore the part the guy said horrible things about women and is a big misogynistic.

They said Yuta didn't know about thing the guy posted because they are old, but Yuta talked about his youtube, so I'm pretty sure he knows what the guy talks about, people pointed out the comments under his posts are also anti-Korean and misogynistic.

Yuta himself talked about this guy youtube and even followed him, this was not simple mistake.

Went to his youtube and there is NTC fans defending the guy in the comments... ugh..

[sciencebottle.livejournal.com]

Friendship is complicated and you may not fully share the beliefs of your friends but man does it look bad on you to have friends who spew openly hateful/misogynistic shit.

Regardless of Yuta actually shares this guy's beliefs or not, a public apology is in order. Him being associated to someone like that is deeply hurtful, regardless of intention. Like....if a friend of mine started supporting Trump hard then I wouldn't hesitate to drop them. I don't want to be associated with that stuff.

[camified.livejournal.com]

I'm not in a mood to defend Yuta but it needs to be clarified that he's *probably* not close friends with this guy. In the vlive he mentioned meeting several Japanese idols/ppl recently and he described their relationships as "older brother-like" (using the honorific 'aniki'). Afaik, that doesn't always imply intimacy? Esp since they just met. It sounded more like they took him in/take care of him like hyungs. And the Rhee guy's recent ig and youtube posts are very normal so it's possible Yuta didn't know.

Anyway, SM is really trash for just letting this go without him saying anything bc this is going to bite him in the ass at some point. As it should. He was never a fav of mine but I feel really uncomfortable with the whole association and would like some acknowledgement.

[blck-ink.livejournal.com]

yiiikes!!! this just looks really bad on yuta's part. whether he agrees with this youtuber's sentiments or not, he clearly has upset a lot of his fans. so i really think that an apology is in order (i doubt there will be one, but still).

seeing how i- fans dismiss black fans' feelings wheb it comes to racism, it doesn't surpeise me the way they behave in this situation.

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

KICK HIM OUTTTT