Aespa member Karina (also known as Yoo Jimin) has been under fire ever since she was a trainee, being involved in a string of controversies. Her old school mates have since stepped up and are defending the soon-to-debut idol and are claiming all the rumors about her are false. Read their statement here.
As a trainee, Karina was at the center of criticism after reports of her being a school bully made their rounds on Korean online community forums. She was also accused of having drunk alcohol underage. Earlier this month, she was accused of having insulted the newest NCT members, Shotaro and Sungchan, BTS, and EXO in a text message exchange with a friend. She was also accused of calling EXO member Kai ugly when they filmed a photoshoot.
Now, two netizens claiming to be Karina's best friends have decided to speak up to protect their friend from the countless controversies surrounding Karina. Read their statement here:
"Hello. We are two best friends of Aespa's Yoo Jimin who is going to be making her debut.
There are many rumors related to Yoo Jimin in many anonymous community forums, but close friends chose to stay silent because the agency responded in the quickest and surest way they could.
However, we have decided to clarify things that we know to stop the spread of the reckless information that was quickly spread around the past few days.
We will only write objective facts without any emotional barriers.
This post is only meant to prevent the controversy from getting worse.
1. Yoo Jimin's appearance in SHINee Taemin's 'WANT' music video
After a photo of Yoo Jimin, who was an unconfirmed trainee at the time, was uploaded to a Facebook page, many people expressed their interest in her. But still, there were negative responses.
Many comments have been going around claiming to bee Yoo Jimin's acquaintance.
Of course, it is clear that these comments are full of unspeakable words.
However, it should be noted that all the comments were left by church mates and school acquaintances that were not close to Yoo Jimin, so we checked them and asked them to delete their comments because we were worried something bad might happen.
They have since apologized and deleted their post.
2. Drinking underage
When she was a minor, she never drank.
There were some articles that claim a photo of people drinking included Yoo Jimin and tagged her Facebook account. However, after checking it, there was no evidence that backs this statement up.
3. This is the recent controversy concerning Yoo Jimin mentioned in early October
A text message exchange between Yoo Jimin and her friend was leaked.
All of the above messages were maliciously crafted.
We have come to this conclusion because we believe Yoo Jimin couldn't text at the time due to filming.
The text lists her stage name, filming schedule, and the company's plans to prove that she is friends with Yoo Jimin.
However, even her best friends did not know at the time what Yoo Jimin's stage name was going to be.
Also, we did not even know that she filmed a commercial with EXO's Kai.
We also did not know that there would be two new members added to NCT, a senior group mentioned in the texts.
So who is this person who claims to have fought with Yoo Jimin and leaked their private messages?
We and our friends believe that the message was fabricated out of malice by the one who leaked it. We also believe the person either fabricated the information, or a second or third party obtained the information from an insider source or a staff.
There are more than a hundred people in the company. They are most likely in the process of filing a case, right?
4. Yoo Jimin bullying the trainees
From what I have heard, Yoo Jimin is actually very close to the trainees who were often mentioned in the online community forum.
Both the post and photos that were posted as proof are not true and does not prove anything.
That is it.
We are ordinary people. Please refrain from making personal insults.
We will not respond to the comments.
We will not mention anything concerning the controversy of the other members."
Karina was revealed as the second member of Aespa earlier this week, securing her spot in the debut line-up. Aespa will debut in November 2020 with a unique 'avatar' concept. Are you excited for Aespa?
