[photo by Yoo Dae-Kil]
The website of JYP Entertainment, one of South Korea's three biggest management companies, remained shut Monday by a suspected cyber attack after a Taiwanese member of its multinational K-Pop girl group Twice apologised for waving the Taiwanese national flag during an online show.
The flag-waving incident triggered an uproar at home and abroad with the Seoul-based group of multicultural homes with foreign mothers or fathers vowing to file a complain with South Korea's state human rights watchdog against JYP for forcing the young girl to make a public apology.
JYP told Aju News that its main homepage as well as other sites run by its crew were down from Saturday due to DDos attacks. Police launched an investigation but there has been no information yet on who was behind the attack.
In November, Chou Tzuyu, a Taiwanese member of Twice managed by JYP held the Taiwanese flag in an online-exclusive portion of MBC variety show "My Little Television", sparking fury among Chinese viewers and SNS users.
In an effort to allay anger among Chinese fans, JYP chief Park Jin-Young apologized for "mismanaging" artists and said Tzuyu respects the "One-China" policy, although she has an "inseparable" relationship with Taiwan where she is from. Tzuyu also stopped her activities in China and apologised through YouTube.
But the apologies sparked anger among Taiwanese people who resent China's claims on their island and want to be called Taiwanese rather than Chinese.
The isolated case has developed into a diplomatic row between Taiwan and China after Taiwan's President elect Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party, extended support to Tzuyu saying that holding a Taiwanese flag is a legitimate expression of national identity.
JYP said Tzuyu's apology was made in consultation with her family, but the Center for Multicultural Korea issued a statement on Monday, insisting Park should be punished for "serious racial discrimination and human rights infringement".
A 16-year-old girl waving the flag of her home country is "very natural" but she was forced to extend an apology apparently under pressure and for commercial interests, it said, calling for an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission and state prosecutors later.
The dispute comes as JYP and its domestic rivals are aggressively making inroads into China by expanding into the local paid music streaming-download service market in the world's most populous country.
Charles Lim
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
