Seungri and Yoo In Suk are being suspected of embezzling more funds from Burning Sun together with Madam Lin.

Previously, the two were booked for embezzling 530 million won (approximately $451,000) of Burning Sun profits.

On June 19, the Intellectual Crime Investigation Team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency revealed that Seungri and Yoo In Suk conspired with Madam Lin, and they are being suspected of embezzling a total of 1 billion won (approximately $850,000) out of the 1.8 billion won (approximately $1.5 million) that has been embezzled from Burning Sun. Company Jun Won Corporation, a major shareholder of the club, along with Burning Sun’s CEOs Lee Sung Hyun and Lee Moon Ho are being suspected of embezzling the remainder of the money.

The police stated that Seungri and Yoo In Suk collected Burning Sun profits even when the company was experiencing a deficit, and Burning Sun’s financial structure weakened as the standard accounting and distribution procedures did not occur.

However, there are no plans to request new pretrial detention warrants for the two following the dismissal of the initial warrant requests in May. The police explained that although they are now suspected to be responsible for embezzling a larger amount of money, the amount that they directly collected themselves is still 530 million won. As a result, it seems unlikely that the court will make a new decision regarding the issuance of warrants.

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Top photo credit: Xportsnews

While a countless amount of songs are being produced each and every day, it’s not an easy process for a song to be released officially. In order for a song to be released and have a chance at being successful, it has to find the right owner and the right timing. Some songs are lucky enough to go through the process overnight, but some songs have to literally wait a decade.

With that being said, here are nine K-pop songs that took at least two years since being written to be officially released.

1. “Produce 101” Season 2 – “It’s Me (Pick Me)”

Ryan Jhun is the producer behind this famous “Produce 101” theme song “It’s Me (Pick Me).” He also produced a number of hit K-pop tracks including EXO’s “Love Me Right, “Taeyeon’s “I,” Red Velvet’s “Dumb Dumb,” and SHINee’s “View.” According to Ryan Jhun, he produced the “Produce 101” theme song around the same time as SHINee’s “Lucifer.” He stated in an interview, “‘It’s Me’ is one of the songs I produced when I was still an aspiring producer 10 years ago. The original title of the track was ‘Moonlight,’ but PD Ahn Jun Young [of ‘Produce 101’] suggested that we should change it.”

2. BTOB Blue – “When It Rains”

The song was written by Hyunsik four years before it was officially released in August 2018. During an episode of BTOB’s “The Beat” series in 2015, the group’s leader Seo Eunkwang was spotted singing the song along with the lyrics, “when it rains.” In 2017, Hyunsik also addressed the track himself while communicating with fans on social media and said, “Don’t you guys all know the song ‘When It Rains’? We will try to release the track next year if an opportunity presents itself.”

3. MAMAMOO, Bumkey – “Don’t Be Happy”

This song was originally produced by Esna, who is also responsible for producing Wheesung and Gummy’s collaboration “Special Love.” While it was produced as an acoustic song, producer Kim Do Hun added a bit of jazz to the song, and it was finally released as a collaboration between MAMAMOO and Bumkey after two years in 2014.

4. BIGBANG’s G-Dragon – “Untitled, 2014”

It is reported that G-Dragon recorded the song back in 2014, three years before the track was officially released as part of his solo album “Kwon Ji Yong” in June 2017. While many fans suspect that G-Dragon included the number 2014 in the title to represent his birthday (If you add the year, month, and day of G-Dragon’s birthday together, you get 2014), it actually represents the year that the song was recorded.

5. Oh My Girl BANHANA – “Banana Allergy Monkey”

During a radio show, the members of Oh My Girl BANHANA revealed that the track was made 10 years before the group released it in 2018. According to the members, a producer at their agency had produced the track a long time ago, but wasn’t able to find the right group to give it to, until they met the Oh My Girl BANHANA members.

6. INFINITE – “Pray (Maetel’s Sorrow)”

This track was released as part of INFINITE’s third studio album “Top Seed.” During a press conference for the release of the album, INFINITE revealed that this particular b-side track was recorded seven years ago. Sungyeol stated, “We’ve been preparing this song since seven years ago. While the rest of the members recently re-recorded the track, the voices of Sunggyu and Sungjong remain the same from seven years ago.”

7. Girls’ Generation – “Dancing Queen”

Girls’ Generation had already recorded and even filmed a music video for “Dancing Queen” in 2008 as a comeback song. The track remained hidden for four years until it was released as a pre-release song of the group’s fourth studio album “I Got a Boy” in January 2013.

8. EXO – “El Dorado”

Fans were first introduced to “El Dorado” in 2012 through a debut teaser that introduced Chanyeol to fans for the first time. The track was finally released three years later as part of the group’s second album “Exodus” in 2015.

9. Super Junior’s Kyuhyun – “My Thoughts, Your Memories”

Kyuhyun revealed that he composed this track when he was suddenly in the mood to write songs after consuming alcohol. Afterwards, he partnered up with his labelmate TVXQ’s Changmin to write the lyrics for the song. Three years later, the track was released as part of Kyuhyun’s first solo mini album “At Gwanghwamun” in 2014.

Do you know any other songs that took a long time to be officially released? Let us know in the comments below!

BIGBANG has achieved yet another YouTube milestone!

On June 7 at approximately 5:30 p.m. KST, the music video for “Fantastic Baby” surpassed 400 million views on YouTube, making it BIGBANG’s first music video to achieve the feat. This is about seven years, two months, and 11 days after the music video’s release on March 27, 2012 at 12 a.m. KST.

The music video for “Fantastic Baby” was also the first K-pop idol group music video to reach 200 million views in January 2016 and 300 million views in June 2017.

Congratulations to BIGBANG!

Celebrate by watching “Fantastic Baby” again below:

Trends are widely hyped in the K-pop industry and usually start among idols and spread within the avid fans before it reaches the general public soon after.

Away from the usual vogues that take the world by storm, trends can also happen to be an expression, a gesture, or a combination of both. With this in mind, and in no particular order, here are eight times idols started their own signature trends with the utmost impact!

1. TWICE’s Sana – “Sha Sha Sha”

“Shy Shy Shy” was first revealed to the world as a lyric in TWICE’s title track “Cheer Up,” but Sana’s adorable pronunciation of the English word introduced the pre-hook line in a whole new perspective that was instantly adopted by listeners as well as other K-pop idols.

2. Park Ji Hoon – “Jeojang”

The former Wanna One member has been known since his “Produce 101” days for his “Jeojang” aegyo. The full confession spells “Nae maeum soge, jeojang” which translates to “I’m saving you in my heart.” It goes without saying that this expression invaded many hearts and made them flutter!

3. BTOB’s Ilhoon – “Gwiyomi Player”

We’ve all come to see and love the different Gwiyomi interpretations that idols have shared with us throughout the years. As it turns out, we owe it all to Ilhoon, who created the hand gestures that go along with the cute chant back in 2012, which inspired the release of a single of the same name a year later by singer Hari. Gwiyomi is a Korean slang word that means a cute person, a cutie.

4. LOONA’s Chuu – The “biting” heart

I think we can all agree that the “Chuu heart” is one of the most unique illustrations to date! The idol came up with it during a fansign, where she made a circle with her hands and “bit” its top into a heart. This special sign surely captured a handful of hearts in return!

5. Jessica Jung – “Daedanada”

On an episode of “Radio Star,” Jessica partook in the conversation between the MCs and Sunny by commenting “Daedanhada,” which means “that’s awesome.” But the way she pronounced it sounded more like “Daedanada” with a dull tone, which became so popular that it landed in the Korean slang dictionary.

6. BIGBANG’s G-Dragon – “Hangsho”

During his appearance on “Infinite Challenge,” G-Dragon came up with a new buzzword “Hangsho” which is short for “Haengbokhashipshyo” and simply means “Be happy.” The expression trended all over Korea and even gave birth to a variety show called “The Hang Show” later on.

7. BTS’s V – “Borahae”

This unique profession of love saw the light of day during member V’s comments at BTS’s third fanmeeting. He started his speech by recreating the meaning of the color purple as a symbol of eternal trust and love between BTS and ARMY. Later, V started using “Borahae” as in “I purple you,” since bora designates the color in question.

8. EXO’s Sehun – “Yehet”

This quirky “scream” of joy is brought to you by EXO’s maknae. Known for his fair share of distinctive words that make up the “Sehunese” language, “Yehet” is a sound that Sehun makes to express an extreme state of happiness or excitement. Although the word is voiced rather calmly, it only takes one glimpse at the idol’s face to know that he is indeed jolly when he says it!

Which idol trend is your favorite? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below!

Esmee L. is a Moroccan lively dreamer, writer, and Hallyu enthusiast.

Lee Joo Yeon and G-Dragon have once again been swept up in dating rumors.

On May 31, Lee Joo Yeon posted a short video taken together with G-Dragon on her Instagram before deleting it immediately. The two were shown playing with a filter on a photo application.

In response, her agency Mystic Story commented, “It is difficult to check regarding Lee Joo Yeon’s personal life.”

Previously in October 2017, their dating rumors were denied after the reveal of a video that the two took together through the app Kwai. Their agencies also denied rumors of their trip to Hawaii together afterwards, and they were then swept up in rumors again in January 2018 through a report by Dispatch.

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The Korean Business Research Institute has revealed this month’s brand reputation rankings for idol groups!

The rankings were determined through an analysis of the consumer participation, media coverage, interaction, and community awareness indexes of 100 idol groups, using big data collected from April 24 to May 25.

BTS continued their winning streak at the top of the rankings this month with a brand reputation index of 24,441,487. High-ranking phrases in the group’s keyword analysis included “YouTube,” “Twitter,” and “Jimin,” while their highest-ranking related terms included “shining,” “appear,” and “cute.” BTS’s positivity-negativity analysis also revealed a score of 90.56 percent positive reactions.

BLACKPINK also maintained their position at second place on the list with a brand reputation index of 8,002,206.

Finally, TWICE came in at a close third this month, scoring a total brand reputation index of 7,702,170 for May.

Check out the top 30 for this month below!

1. BTS
2. BLACKPINK
3. TWICE
4. IZ*ONE
5. NU’EST
6. Oh My Girl
7. Red Velvet
8. EXO
9. INFINITE
10. Lovelyz
11. AB6IX
12. WINNER
13. EXID
14. NCT
15. The Boyz
16. MAMAMOO
17. SEVENTEEN
18. BIGBANG
19. (G)I-DLE
20. Girls’ Generation
21. Weki Meki
22. GFRIEND
23. SHINee
24. TXT
25. GWSN
26. Super Junior
27. WJSN (Cosmic Girls)
28. Apink
29. fromis_9
30. BTOB

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Chosun Ilbo has reported that Yoo In Suk, the former CEO of Yuri Holdings, has admitted to soliciting prostitution with Seungri at Seungri’s home in 2015.

According to the reports, Yoo In Suk admitted to the charges when he was recently questioned by the police. On May 23, the police stated that Yoo In Suk admitted to soliciting prostitution services from two women on December 23, 2015 at an apartment in Gangnam, Seoul that Seungri lived in. The reports also state that one of the women who was there was questioned by police and stated, “We went to the address given to us by Madam, and Seungri and Yoo In Suk were there. When we were each chosen by them, we went into separate rooms.”

Previously, Channel A’s “News A” had released an exclusive report on May 18 stating that Seungri had admitted to soliciting prostitution during his pretrial detention warrant questioning.

Chosun Ilbo’s report states that when asked by police why he and Seungri solicited prostitution services at Seungri’s home in 2015, Yoo In Suk is said to have replied, “We were going to call the prostitutes for Japanese business partners the next day, and we wanted to see what they would be like so we called them.” Seungri and Yoo In Suk have been charged with covering the costs of a five-star hotel for a Japanese businessman and his acquaintances for three days from December 24, 2015, as well as soliciting prostitution services for the group across two days.

Seungri is said to have paid for the approximately 30 million won (approximately $25,200) in hotel fees using a YG Entertainment company card. The women who were called to Seungri’s home are also said to have been a part of the ten women who were solicited for prostitution services at the hotel.

The police believe that Yoo In Suk has solicited such services for Seungri multiple times. According to a source from the police, “While Seungri was living in an apartment in Mapo, Seoul in 2015, he is believed to have engaged in sexual relations through prostitution services called on by Yoo In Suk. A prostitute who visited Seungri at his Mapo apartment was questioned and stated, ‘I didn’t know who had called for me, so I was surprised to see Seungri there.'”

The police are currently continuing their investigation into both Yoo In Suk and Seungri after their pretrial detention warrant requests were dismissed by the courts.

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