On Wednesday, Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon updated fans of JYJ's Kim Junsu regarding the singer's absence from the recently held government-sponsored 25th Seoul Music Awards.
Park reached out to the Seoul Music Awards after fans raised awareness that Junsu was excluded from the awards ceremony, held on Jan. 14. Despite the fact that Junsu was voted the most popular celebrity and was expected to receive an award at the televised broadcast, he was not invited to the ceremony.
The Seoul mayor revealed that Seoul Music Awards officials told him that Junsu's exclusion was accidental.
"The Seoul Music Awards deny that the exclusion was on purpose, and are insisting that it is a mistake," wrote Park on Facebook and Twitter. "However, this is not accepted as a reasonable argument."
Following Junsu's absence from the event as well as a situation that involved Junsu's girlfriend EXID's Hani, who was MCing, crying after being teased by a fellow MC, the situation went viral. Park, who previously met Junsu, took the matter seriously as the Seoul Music Awards are government funded and announced that he would look into the matter.
Park took a strong stance against the Seoul Music Awards, and declared that the Seoul government will halt funding to the ceremony if the issue reemerges at future events.
Junsu, a member of JYJ and formerly a member of TVXQ, has been unable to promote on many Korean broadcasts since 2009, when he and two other members left TVXQ. Since then, there have been allegations that their former agency, SM Entertainment, has used its influence to block the three from promoting their music on Korean broadcasts, despite a law that makes the actions illegal.
In 2015, the Korean National Aseembly signed a law known publicly as the "JYJ Law" that would find broadcasters for blocking entertainers from performing on shows without due reason.
"These measure are lacking and I know they won't heal the wounded hearts of fans and JYP," wrote Park. "If this happens again, we will continue to support your side."
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Tamar Herman is a multi-media journalist and the co-founder of KultScene. She is a freelance writer and copy editor, and has written for MTV Iggy, Noisey, and Paste Magazine.
