The South Korean police have summoned a Japanese woman for questioning after she was accused of kissing Jin, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, without consent during a public event last year.
The Japanese woman, whose name was not revealed, was in a crowd of fans at the event in Seoul last June that celebrated Jin’s discharge from the South Korean military after his mandatory 18 months of service. Jin, whose real name is Kim Seok-jin, was offering hugs to his fans when the Japanese woman abruptly kissed him on his cheek.
Video footage that went viral showed Jin looking uncomfortable when a couple of female fans tried to kiss him. Subsequently, someone filed a formal legal complaint on a government website, which the authorities can react to if they consider them worthy of investigation.
The South Korean police have since identified a Japanese woman with the help of Japanese police, said the Songpa police station in southern Seoul.
If the woman accepts the summons, she will face questioning on possible charges of sexual harassment, the police station said. They didn’t say what additional steps they might take if she did not oblige.
It did not provide personal details on the woman, but South Korean news media said the woman was in her 50s and bragged online about how her lips had touched Jin’s “soft” skin.
Hybe, the firm that created and manages the boy band, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite historical disputes rooted in Japan’s colonial rule of Korea in the early 20th century, South Korea and Japan maintain brisk tourist exchanges. South Korean TV dramas and K-pop groups like BTS are a major attraction for Japanese fans, who visit locations where the dramas were filmed or attend K-pop fan meetings.
BTS has a legion of global fans who call themselves the BTS “Army.”
Like all other eligible young South Korean men, the seven boy-band members were obliged to finish military service. That led to a pause for one of the biggest musical acts in the world.
Jin, 32, the oldest member of the band, was the first to join the military in 2022. The band’s management has said that the group would reconvene this year once all its members are back from military service.
