Netizens Left Confused After Debate About The Truth Behind aespa Karina’s (Yoo Jimin) Controversy

SM Entertainment‘s new girl group, aespa, is set for debut in November. Despite the successful teasers, the buzz around member Karina continues to bring up past issues. Karina was previously known to the public as Yoo Jimin, one of the high profile trainees in SM Entertainment.

She was involved in a controversy when her friend allegedly uploaded screenshots of her conversation with Karina prior to news of the group’s upcoming debut. The screenshots were rather incriminating, given that Karina had allegedly insulted various male idols including EXO, NCT, and BTS.

I mean it didn’t used to be this bad.. but I think our company and our idols now cannot compare to that other company. I didn’t like BTS originally because they’re ugly…

— Yoo Jimin from the alleged screenshots

Later on, SM Entertainment released a statement to refute these posts, claiming they were fabricated. This led fans to wonder if they were planning a debut soon given that they were quick to give an official statement about a trainee.

Just a few weeks since their statement, Karina was announced as a member of SM’s upcoming group, and netizens have begun digging for new parts to the story.

On the original screenshots that were circulating, Karina’s alleged friend had mentioned the name, Karina. Yoo Jimin’s use of this stage name had not been announced publicly until October 28, 2020. However, these screenshots had been circulating since late September 2020. This led netizens to think that the screenshots were real after all.

Many have been criticizing the company for pushing forward with the stage name despite the fact that it ties in with the past controversy.

“But… if her stage name is Karina…isn’t it just confirming the allegations? The screenshots from last time mentioned Karina.”

— @_219101 on Twitter

• “If Yoo Jimin’s stage name is Karina, then the messages are real.”
• “Seeing as her stage name is Karina, then the contents of these messages are real.”

However, it seems that news of her stage name has been going around since August, where a reply to a fan’s Curious Cat included her planned stage name. The fan thought that it may have been Jimin replying to her anonymously when she asked about a stage name.

Even so, Korean netizens still think otherwise. Some also lament the fact that their idols are being brought into this mess for no reason.

• “After seeing this, there are some suspicious points. If it was just the stage name, you could still sufficiently say that it’s fabricated by reasoning that it’s possible to guess a name. However, it’s not just that – the stage name, the info about (Kai’s) advertisement and the info about the new (NCT) members – the messages knew about it for sure before they were all released. If it’s a fabrication, the person has to be at least a staff in SM or someone close to her. If her friend heard all this info from Karina and made these up, I’m just amazed that a trainee is going around telling people internal information as this is the first time I’m seeing stuff being leaked like this.”
• “Well a debut group isn’t made in a day – so tbh the part where she’s whining about not being able to debut despite being put in the debut group seems fake”
• “Even if you can say it’s fabricated based on the stage name, the info about the commercials probably can’t be?”

On the other hand, aespa and Karina have been receiving overwhelming amounts of support from the international community who are anxiously awaiting their debut.