On the morning of January 7 KST, TWICE’s Jihyo posted a letter to ONCE explaining her recent comment during a V Live chat. The comment was in response to a question about why she was absent at times during the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards, and her choice of words (oong-aeng-oong, specifically) elicited criticism from some netizens.
During the chat, she said, “I’m saying this because attention seekers keep [crying about it/saying nonsense] (oong-aeng-oong), but I wasn’t feeling well. You must have been having fun because there was something to pick on, but I’m sorry. I just couldn’t do anything about not feeling well.”
Oong-aeng-oong is part of a Korean expression that first started on Twitter when a user was saying that something in a film was unintelligible, or sounded like nonsense. It has since been adapted by radical feminists in Korea as a term for belittling men. Rapper San E also used the phrase as the title of a diss track.
In a letter to ONCE, posted on TWICE’s official fan cafe, Jihyo apologized for what she said and explained that she has been having a hard time since early last year.