Kim Tae Kyun Releases Apology After Mocking (G)I-DLE Shuhua on a Radio Show

On August 6, Thursday, (G)I-DLE appeared on the radio program "Cultwo Show" to promote their latest comeback, "DUMDi DUMDi". While on the show, Shuhua shared a story about how she had good spicy chicken at a convenience store.

While telling her story, Shuhua ended up mispronouncing the Korean word for a chicken drumstick, "dakdari". Upon hearing the slip of the tongue, host and comedian Kim Tae Hyun started imitating Shuhua and her pronunciation.

Neverlands [(G)I-DLE fans] were outraged at the host's behavior and reaction. Shuhua is from Taiwan and has spoken up about having a hard time with Korean, and it's known amongst fans that though she is constantly improving, she isn't fluent quite yet. With that, fans thought the MC should have been more understanding instead of mocking her.

One fan said, "She is not Korean. Her Korean is not perfect. Why is he mocking her and teasing her when she is trying her best to learn and improve?"

Following the backlash, Kim Tae Kyun posted an apology to his actions. His apology states that he did not intentionally mean to imitate Shuhua with bad intentions; rather, he thought her accent was cute so he chose to repeat it. He went on to say that he reached out to Shuhua personally and apologized to her. His apology reads:

"On August 6 last week, during a live interview with (G)I-DLE, I imitated a foreign member's Korean accent and wish to apologize to (G)I-DLE fans and everyone else offended by my actions. I had no intention of mocking her. I just found her accent adorable and imitated it because I appreciated how hard she tried to perfect the word, but I now understand how it made people uncomfortable. I have reached out to Shuhua and apologized for my actions. Additionally, I want to apologize to the public too. I will work towards becoming a better host who is considerate of my guests. Thank you for reading."

Some fans thought his apology was good enough, with some netizens saying:

"I think he made a mistake unknowingly, he should be careful with his words from now on."

"He apologized, so he should be careful in the future."

However, some could not get over how rude his behavior was. The incident has led Korean netizen to discuss xenophobia in the industry, and how some people may now even know they're being discriminatory to foreigners.

"This needs to stop. 'Running Man' constantly makes fun of Jessi's accent a lot too. Jessi is Korean, and maybe it isn't exactly the same because she's from the States... But still, we need to stop mocking each other's accents."

"My bias is from another country too. In 2016, on that very same radio show, they got mocked by the hosts in the same way. I did not think they'd ever apologize... But I guess it's getting better now that they are learning and apologizing."

"My bias has said in the past that they do not feel comfortable speaking Korean anymore because of this. I hope this xenophobia stops."

"I can't believe people still do this... People have called this out for being problematic forever now."

"Whatever his intentions were, he was still rude."

"If you see a foreigner imitating how a Korean speaks in English, won't you get angry?"

What do you think of the situation?