Travel YouTuber Wonji (Lee Won-ji, 37) addressed the firestorm over her team working in a windowless basement space roughly 200 square feet in size, releasing a new video that walks viewers through her move to a coworking setup and clears the air on swirling rumors.
The creator sparked criticism after posting a clip showing staff in a roughly 6-pyeong, second-basement level office with no windows. In a Dec. 4 upload, she appeared on camera to restate her position and lay out next steps.
“I’m sorry for causing worry,” she said at the top of the video, noting the irony that she’s long emphasized the importance of ventilation. She acknowledged that her team was inconvenienced and said everyone has temporarily shifted to working from home while she rethinks how the office is run.
Addressing why she spoke up now, Wonji said some reporters and subscribers had begun showing up at the office and that “misreported details” pushed her to clarify the situation sooner rather than later.
She also shot down two of the biggest rumors: that a Hannam office belongs to her and that her agency’s CEO is her husband. “The Hannam space is a company-owned office―I don’t have even 1% ownership,” she said, adding, “The CEO is not my husband or a relative; we’re not related.”
As for past references to a “one-person agency,” she explained the company had long functioned mainly as an agency and only recently began talent management―at the time, she was the only signed talent. “I used that phrase in that context, but I understand it could be misread as ‘my own label,’ and I’m sorry for that.”
Wonji also revisited her apparel venture “Ho,” which she launched about three years ago after sourcing fabric in Dongdaemun. She put the project on ice for nearly two years, then restarted it with a freelance planner and designer, meeting once or twice a week in study cafes. When her company later moved to Hannam in Seoul, she briefly used extra space there. As the company grew, she rushed to secure a separate office―signing for the basement unit the same day she saw it―decisions she now calls insufficiently cautious.
The new video shows her consulting at a coworking space and her team packing up the current office. “We’re cleaning out the space and carefully figuring out where to land next,” she said. “I may have been running the business like I travel―too independently. Sitting in the ‘founder’ seat, I see where I’ve fallen short. I’m grateful for both the tough feedback and the support, and from here on, I’ll move at a pace I can handle without overreaching.”
Employees chimed in under the video as well. A commenter identifying as “Horolo Staff” wrote, “We’re communicating closely with our CEO. She’s been doing her best, and we wanted to note that she’s shown us a lot of consideration and support in various situations―things the video didn’t fully capture.”
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)