NCT’s Yuta Under Fire For Being Close With Controversial Anti-Korean YouTuber

Recently, NCT’s Yuta held a live stream and revealed that he was close friends with a YouTuber named Rhee-kun.

He said, “These days I’m also close to, not sure if you know him, he’s a YouTuber called Rhee-kun. I’ve been close with him lately. We met up yesterday too.”

나카모토 유타 리쿤 언급 pic.twitter.com/FzHzT7ztnh

— 왜뭐왜 (@pJylhY8IhCVa5gz) July 26, 2020

The criticism started due to the mention of Rhee-kun as he is known for his anti-Korean and misogynistic ways through his content online. Taking one look at his YouTube and social media pages shows what kind of content he uses to gain attention.

The post caption reads, “I’m here to attend a protest.”

The poster in his hand reads “Moon Jae In has ruined the economy that Park Geunhye saved!”

This photo is a thumbnail from one of his YouTube videos and shows “how to have sex with a pretty Korean girl who has done plastic surgery.”

Most of his content is offensive and controversial including anti Korea/pro-Japan matters, inappropriate content about women, as well as mentioning the names of idols Sulli and Jonghyun as click-bait titles. Fans were shocked by this as these two were also label-mates with Yuta. Although the mentioned live stream has since been deleted due to the backlash, this matter has become a big deal in the K-fan community.

This issue is a sensitive topic for Koreans due to the past history between the two countries. Talking about his relationship with the said YouTuber as a member of a Korean idol group on a Korean broadcast is something that might not be taken lightly by the Korean public. Although nothing has been confirmed, reports claim that the said YouTuber is Korean and is an alleged sex offender as well.

K-fans also saw that Yuta followed only nine people on Instagram with one of them being Rhee-kun.

While many K-fans are angered and demand an apology about the situation, others are waiting for an official statement and response from the company. Non-Korean fans can understand why K-fans are angry, but they feel that statements about him withdrawing from the group and other inappropriate remarks is unnecessary.

Yuta has since un-followed the YouTuber on Instagram.

Fans have also created an email template to send to SM Entertainment to receive an apology and explanation regarding this matter. SM has not addressed anything about this matter yet.