SM Entertainment is receiving backlash from Korean netizens.
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SM Entertainment’s 5th-gen girl group Hearts2Hearts has gotten caught up in a sensitive political discourse after releasing a promotional photo of their upcoming comeback.
Hearts2Hearts | @hearts2hearts/Instagram
The group announced its second mini album, Lemon Tang, on June 1 (KST), and has been releasing promotional material since then to tease anticipation. One of these promo photos showed Hearts2Hearts member Stella posing as a weather forecaster with a lemon in her hand while she points at a map of South Korea labeled with “Lemon” all across. The label on top read, “Lemon Tang Alert: Fresh Condition Expected. A New Atmospheric Phenomenon,” while on the bottom, the album’s release date was highlighted.
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This tongue-in-cheek promotional photo, however, unexpectedly became a point of political debate as Korean netizens noticed that the map of South Korea didn’t include the Dokdo Island.
Dokdo Island is currently a disputed territory, with both Koreas and Japan claiming it. Though South Korea is currently in control of the Dokdo islets, Japan contests its sovereignty over the region. While South Korea classifies it as Dokdo-ri, a part of the Ulleung County of the Gyeongsang Province, Japan claims it is a part of Okinoshima, Oki District, Shimane Prefecture.
The exclusion of Dokdo Island from South Korea’s map has hence been perceived as SM’s attempt to appease its Japanese fanbase. Netizens, outraged at this omission, have called out the agency with scathing remarks.
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- “I stan SM idols, but whenever things like this happen, I seriously want to beat the sh*t out of the agency.”
- “Why would they do it?”
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- “They’re insane.”
- “It makes me wonder if they’re doing that on purpose, knowing full well how sensitive this issue is.”
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- “That agency is always full of scandals involving their Chinese and Japanese artists, lol.”
- “Stop worrying so much about what Japan thinks. It’s our land, after all.”
As the controversy grew, the original photo was taken down and replaced by a corrected version, which clearly included Dokdo Island. While some netizens were satisfied with the correction, others felt that the mistake shouldn’t have been made in the first place.
| Instiz