K-pop star Sowon is under fire for posting pictures on social media of herself standing beside a Nazi mannequin.
Sowon, a member of the girl group GFriend, deleted a post to her Instagram that contained photos of herself standing beside a figure dressed in what appears to be a Nazi uniform, CNN reported. The images were taken in November from the group’s video shoot at a cafe in South Korea, according to their record label Source Music. (RELATED: Korean Actress And Model Song Yoo-Jung Dead At 26)
“We would like to offer a sincere apology for the issues caused by video clips from the behind-the-scenes footage of GFriend’s comeback show as well as photographs uploaded by GFriend member Sowon,” Source Music said in a statement obtained by the K-pop news service Soompi.
Source Music Issues Apology After #GFRIEND‘s Sowon’s Controversy Over Photos https://t.co/nqHUz8WsKO pic.twitter.com/W5Wy4N50IS
— Soompi (@soompi) February 1, 2021
According to the statement, Source Music apologized for failing to check “inappropriate props in the set” before the shoot and during the editing process. They also apologized for “not paying closer attention to historical facts and societal issues.”
“The problematic portion of the video has been corrected as of now,” said Source Music. “The artist also was very surprised after becoming aware of the meaning of the content of the photos and deleted them immediately, and she feels deeply responsible and heartbroken over uploading such photos.”
Many fans on Twitter criticized the 25-year-old for her actions and argued pleading ignorant to history was no excuse.
so from what i heard gfriend had a nazi soldier on their set then sowon decided to pose and take pics with it and only deleted it because ‘the fans would be jealous’ then sinb saved sowon on her phone as ‘kitler’ which is a mix of kim sojung and hitler, i honestly have no words. pic.twitter.com/vS9pOyYERX
— MINA (@CHENJlCUB) January 31, 2021
tw// nazism, nazi
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i’m disappointed of s0won but i’m glad she deleted.. she needs to apologize tho.. nazis are not friends or someone you can hug or look so lovingly at, they are killers, they killed 6 million jews out of them 1.5 million jewish children /srs pic.twitter.com/9GmWT8I60W— a jewish person ???? (@KOOSDOLLZ) January 31, 2021
The group GFriend was formed in 2015 and has six members, with Sowon being the oldest in the group, according to CNN. The group has gained international popularity over the past six years, including winning best Korean act at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
Sowon has over 800,000 followers on Instagram.
The K-pop star has yet to release her own statement about the incident.