BIGBANG: K-pop troublemakers

By Dong Sun-hwa

BIGBANG, the five-piece boy band, has been a prominent group on the K-pop scene, but most of its members have been branded as troublemakers, tarnishing the group's reputation as musicians.

Seungri

Seungri, 29, tested negative for a drug test on Thursday. He also was questioned at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for more than eight hours the same day.

His agency YG Entertainment said on Wednesday that Seungri would cooperate with police investigating multiple allegations surrounding him. He allegedly tried to buy sexual services for foreign investors, and a nightclub affiliated with him has been under suspicion for being involved with drugs.

YG said it hoped to get to the bottom of the indiscriminate rumors, saying, “If any problem is found (after the investigation,) legal punishment should follow. On the contrary, if rumors are found to be false, we would seek legal actions.”

Seungri has been in the hot seat since January as the former executive director of the nightclub “Burning Sun” in Gangnam, which was allegedly a “hotbed of crime.” Some female customers were drugged and raped in the club and drug parties were held there, according to media reports.

However, it is not the first time Seungri has been involved in controversy.

In 2012, he was embroiled in a sex scandal. A Japanese media outlet showed a photo of topless Seungri lying on a bed and reported that a woman, who claimed she had sex with him, provided the photo. She reportedly said, “Seungri likes to strangle his partner while having sex.” YG made no response about the incident.

G-dragon

Group leader G-dragon recently made headlines for failing to be promoted to the rank of corporal, despite joining the military in February last year. Normally, an enlisted man gets a chance to be a corporal about 10 months after enlisting.

But G-dragon reportedly spent about a third of his military life outside the unit and was hospitalized at an Army hospital for 40 days with an ankle problem. Although the army said his long leave was not the cause of him missing promotion, people remain suspicious.

He was also mired in a marijuana scandal in 2011 for allegedly smoking the drug at a club in Japan. But his indictment was suspended because he was a first-time offender, and the amount involved was small.

T.O.P

Rapper T.O.P was under fire in 2017 for a marijuana scandal. He began his compulsory military service as a conscripted policeman in February 2017, but lost his position after being found guilty of smoking marijuana.

He was sentenced to a 10-month jail term suspended for two years, and was ordered to pay compensation.

He is now doing public service work at Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and is due to be discharged in June.