Ko Young-wook, a former member of the group Rula. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) provided]
Ko Young-wook, a former member of the group Rula. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) provided]

Ko Young-wook, a former member of the group Rula, has rebuffed reports that he criticized actor Cha Tae-hyun — a judge on the SBS talent show "Woori-deul-ui Ballad 2" — for "acting arrogantly," saying the post attributed to him was not what he actually wrote.

On Friday, Ko wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account that he had posted something after watching the show but deleted it because he felt he was in no position to offer criticism. "That is clearly not what I posted," he said, adding that the article read as though he had said things he never said — as if a reporter had relied on AI to reconstruct a post from memory.

Ko said the show was one he rarely made a point of watching, purely to enjoy good music. "I wrote down what I felt as just a viewer, not a celebrity anymore, and yet they went out of their way to dig up a post I had already deleted," he added.

Earlier, multiple outlets reported that Ko had posted on SNS on Wednesday, referencing contestant Han Roi's performance on "Woori-deul-ui Ballad 2" and expressing dissatisfaction with the judges' feedback. He was reported to have written that Cha was "acting arrogantly."

The wording attributed to Ko varied from report to report. One outlet quoted him as writing that Han Roi's song "was not my style, but it fit perfectly with everything this man had been through." Another reported that he wrote the singing style "was not to my taste, but it matched this friend's story of hardship."

Ko acknowledged that he had posted and then deleted something, but maintained that the content reported in the press was not what he had written.

Ko has been making a series of references to celebrities on X in recent days. On Tuesday, he claimed that a manager who had worked with broadcaster Yoo Jae-suk for 16 years had never received the premium beef gifts Yoo was praised for giving during holidays. Two days later, Ko posted a follow-up saying the manager had been put in an awkward position, but stood by his original account, saying "what I posted was exactly the conversation we had that day."

Ko made his debut in 1994 as a member of Rula. In 2013, the Supreme Court handed down a final sentence of two years and six months in prison on charges of sexually assaulting and molesting minors. He was also ordered to have his personal information disclosed for five years and to wear an electronic ankle monitor for three years.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com