Kim Seon-tae Issues Swift Apology Over Mentioning RESCENE WONI's 'Museopno' Controversy During His YouTube Show

Following criticism for reviving the "museopno" controversy surrounding the group RESCENE, former Chungju public official-turned-broadcaster Kim Seon-tae has quickly issued an apology.

Kim posted a video titled "I'm Sorry" on his YouTube channel on the 30th to offer an immediate apology. He began by saying, "Hello, this is Kim Seon-tae. First, I sincerely apologize to everyone who was hurt by the pre-release video of 'Donseontae Successful Era' uploaded to the KBS YouTube channel yesterday."

He explained the timeline of when he became aware of the controversy. Kim stated, "I first saw the pre-release video yesterday around 8:40 PM. As soon as I realized that a problem had occurred, I asked the production team to delete the video." He blamed himself, adding, "Even though the video bears my name, I was truly irresponsible. Hiding behind the name of a broadcasting station, I did not request any prior review or pre-sharing of the uploaded video."

He also directly acknowledged the remarks that sparked the controversy. He explained, "The excessive mention of the guest, which many people pointed out, is also clearly my fault. Since it was the first shoot for the program, I was too busy familiarizing myself with the script on the day of filming and completely failed to recognize the problems in the script on-site."

He concluded his apology by saying, "Ever since the video was made private, I have taken time to reflect on my words and actions. Moving forward, I will be much more cautious in all my statements and actions. I will work hard to ensure that something like this never happens again. I want to express my deepest apologies to everyone who was harmed by my shortcomings, especially the RESCENE members."

Previously, on the 29th, a pre-release video for "Donseontae Successful Era" was uploaded to the YouTube channel "Kebaeksu Original." In the video, Kim drew criticism for explicitly bringing up the past "museopno" controversy to RESCENE member WONI, asking, "Didn't anyone say this might be viral marketing?"

Criticism mounted that he had re-summoned painful memories for an artist who had already suffered emotional distress over a settled political controversy. The backlash grew further when it was revealed that the video's hashtags included the names of political and business figures, such as the president, which had nothing to do with RESCENE. Eventually, the video was made private approximately four hours after its release.

(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)