SEOUL, March 14 — Yong Junhyung announced today that he will be leaving K-pop band Highlight — formerly known as Beast.
He is the third K-pop star to step away from the spotlight this week in a scandal sweeping South Korea’s music industry.
In a posting on his official Instagram page, the 29-year-old singer admitted that he had viewed a video of fellow singer Jung Joon-young having sex with women taken without their consent — but just not the one everyone is talking about.
Earlier this week, Yong’s agency Around Us Entertainment had issued an official statement to deny that he was one of the celebrities in the now-notorious chatroom involving BIGBANG’s Seungri and Jung where illegal hidden camera footage was allegedly shared.
The March 11 episode of SBS’ 8 O’clock News had reported that hidden camera videos and photos were shared between a total of eight people in the chatroom, including Seungri, two male singers, CEO Yoo of Yoori Holdings, acquaintance Mr Kim, one entertainment agency employee and two other non-public figures.
A member of the chatroom was labelled in the report as “Singer Yong,” leading to speculation that this was Yong Junhyung of Highlight.
At the time, Yong’s agency Around Us Entertainment stated, “We have confirmed that it is not Yong Junhyung. It is a groundless rumour.”
Today, it appears that Yong has backpaddled on his initial claims, saying that he “did not understand the point of the issue” when his agency contacted him for clarification.
He added as a result, he had not “provided accurate information” because he could not verify the dates of the chats in question as he no longer had the related chat logs in his own KakaoTalk.
Yong then apologised for causing “confusion” to his fellow Highlight members and their fans.
He also addressed the revelation in the SBS report that stated Jung revealed to the chatroom that he had been caught sending an illegal video to another person, to which the Highlight member was quoted as responding: “You got caught by her?”
Yong now admits that he had received “a different video at the time” and had “participated in inappropriate conversations about this”.
He continued that he recognised “all of these actions were extremely immoral, and I was very foolish. I treated it as something that is not a big deal, without thinking that it was a crime and an illegal act.”
He ended by saying, “It is also my fault for not stopping Jung Joon-young... I feel ashamed that I was a silent observer.”
Yong also said that he had met Seoul police as a witness in the ongoing case against Jung and that he had cooperated fully with the investigation.
Earlier today, Jung appeared in front of the press on his way to attend police questioning at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Office.
After pausing in the midst of the media scrum, he stated, "I am sorry. I am very sorry for causing the nation's citizens concern."
Both Jung and Seungri, who is also embroiled in a related sexual bribery case, announced this week that they were leaving the entertainment industry.
But now that a third head has rolled, the question on every K-pop fan’s lips is: Whose scalp will the scandal claim next?
