A member of a far-right Korean online community has threatened to kill K-pop girl group TWICE's Mina over her supposed boyfriend, prompting her agency to take legal action.
The death threat was uploaded on the site Ilbe, which is known for far-right politics and hate-filled posts. "If you don't slap your boyfriend and rip apart his mouth I am going to come kill you," the Ilbe member wrote along with a photo of a knife near his wrist.
After the post spread to online sites in Korea, the suspect issued an apology and asked for forgiveness. "I wrote the post without considering that it would be a threat to the person directly involved and cause fear. I would like to ask for forgiveness as I pathetically apologize to Mina and TWICE's fans after belatedly realizing that this resulted in great shock," the suspect said, according to Soompi.
Despite the apology, JYP Entertainment, TWICE's agency, said they will file a lawsuit. "After discussing with our legal team the post made on May 13 by an Ilbe user which contained a death threat against TWICE's Mina, we relay that we will be filing civil and criminal suits," the agency said.
It added: "There will be no leniency. Also, we will be taking a strong stance against similar incidents in the future with the help of all aspects of legal action possible."
Last January, the agency announced that "we will be taking strong action against all posts and comments on online communities and SNS platforms containing sexually harassing content, malicious rumors, false information, and defaming statements regarding TWICE and their members," according to AllKPop.
The decision was made based on reports and monitoring of malicious online posts about the girl group. "Recently, we came to the decision that the number and degree of malicious posts have come to a point where we can no longer watch in silence. We officially announce that plan to to take strong actions to protect the rights of our artist, as well as their mental and physical health," it added.
