Korean envoy gangnams around hugging row
Kow Gah ChiePublished: Jan 19, 2015 2:00 PM | Updated: Jan 19, 2015 9:43 PM
South Korea's ambassador to Malaysia took a guarded position on the recent controversy over a video of a K-Pop boy band B1A4 apparently hugging and kissing Muslim fans.
Asked if the entertainers will still hug and kiss their fans in Malaysia in the future, Ambassador Cho Byungjae replied, "If you don't like, why they (still)doing that (sic)?"
UPDATED 5.15PM
When asked, Cho Byungjae says, 'If you don't like, why do it?'
South Korea's ambassador to Malaysia took a guarded position on the recent controversy over a video of a K-Pop boy band B1A4 apparently hugging and kissing Muslim fans.
Asked if the entertainers will still hug and kiss their fans in Malaysia in the future, Ambassador Cho Byungjae replied, "If you don't like, why they (still)doing that (sic)?"
When Malaysiakini pressed further if the embassy would prohibit such "kissing and hugging" in the future, Cho (left) just laughed.
He added the embassy always advises its artists to be more sensitive and careful when in Malaysia.
"That we always emphasise, to whoever is going out," he said.
The controversy erupted last weekend when a video of the fan meeting in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, where the band members hugged several tudung-clad girls, hit cyberspace.
In response Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin quipped on Twitter, "Get real men," but other netizens were not as amused.
One of them, Multaqa Asatizah dan Pendakwah Malaysia (Murshid) president Zaharuddin Abdul Rahman, said hugging a K-Pop star is far worse than hugging a dog
Cho said news of the incident has circulated in South Korea, but would not say what the tone of the reactions were.
"I know that in SMS and some comments are flying (about) in Korea.
"You have to look (at it yourselves)," he said when asked what the sentiments were.
'A spontaneous move'
Descirbing the incident as "spontaneous move" that "need not have happened", Cho told a press conference that he wished this would not affect the relationship between both countries.
He said this after attending a seminar on renewable energy investment in Kuala Lumpur, jointly organised by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and Asean-Korea Centre.
He denied that growing Islamisation in Malaysia would frighten off investors from Korea, where 26 percent population are Christians.
Instead, Cho said, the government-to-government, business-to-business and people-to-people relationships between Malaysia and South Korea were very much intact.
Asked if the entertainers will still hug and kiss their fans in Malaysia in the future, Ambassador Cho Byungjae replied, "If you don't like, why they (still)doing that (sic)?"
When Malaysiakini pressed further if the embassy would prohibit such "kissing and hugging" in the future, Cho (left) just laughed.He added the embassy always advises its artists to be more sensitive and careful when in Malaysia.
"That we always emphasise, to whoever is going out," he said.
The controversy erupted last weekend when a video of the fan meeting in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, where the band members hugged several tudung-clad girls, hit cyberspace.
In response Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin quipped on Twitter, "Get real men," but other netizens were not as amused.
One of them, Multaqa Asatizah dan Pendakwah Malaysia (Murshid) president Zaharuddin Abdul Rahman, said hugging a K-Pop star is far worse than hugging a dogCho said news of the incident has circulated in South Korea, but would not say what the tone of the reactions were.
"I know that in SMS and some comments are flying (about) in Korea.
"You have to look (at it yourselves)," he said when asked what the sentiments were.
'A spontaneous move'
Descirbing the incident as "spontaneous move" that "need not have happened", Cho told a press conference that he wished this would not affect the relationship between both countries.
He said this after attending a seminar on renewable energy investment in Kuala Lumpur, jointly organised by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and Asean-Korea Centre.
He denied that growing Islamisation in Malaysia would frighten off investors from Korea, where 26 percent population are Christians.
Instead, Cho said, the government-to-government, business-to-business and people-to-people relationships between Malaysia and South Korea were very much intact.
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