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The K-pop artist is taking a pause from the rookie boy group’s activities, following a slew of controversies against him
MANILA, Philippines – RIIZE member Seunghan is indefinitely suspending his participation in the rookie boy group’s activities, according to a statement from SM Entertainment.
According to the company, the K-pop artist “is feeling severely apologetic and is reflecting on himself” after the slew of private life controversies raised against him over the past few months.
SM Entertainment also cites Seunghan’s feelings of “mental pressure and responsibility” as well as the grave difficulty that would be present in continuing activities, which have ultimately led to the mutual decision to halt activities for the time being. Because of this, RIIZE is slated to promote as six members instead of seven starting Wednesday, November 22.
“We are feeling great responsibility for being inattentive about artist management although it was before his debut,” SM Entertainment stated.
However, the company also acknowledged the violations of privacy committed against the artist using the leaked media that were taken during his trainee days. SM Entertainment alleges that some material have been edited as “malicious means of creating groundless false information and messenger conversations that do not exist,” which only contribute to the additional defamation against the artist.
“We will continue to do our best for the protection of our agency’s artists,” SM Entertainment promised. SM Entertainment said that they will be taking “strong legal action” against malicious leakers of the artist’s private life. A police complaint is set to be filed this afternoon after the company has gathered “a significant amount of evidence” that point to who was behind the leaks.
Since the group’s debut, anonymous sources have been coming out with rumors and allegations about Seunghan’s private life. The anonymous exposers leaked videos of Seunghan’s live broadcasts, photographs of smoking and kissing, and more controversial material.
Seunghan and SM Entertainment made statements of apology back in August, when the first set of photos and videos were circulated. In SM’s prior statement then, they also mentioned that they would be filing criminal complaints against the unauthorized leakers.
RIIZE is a seven-member group from SM Entertainment that debuted on September 4, 2023 with the single “Get a Guitar.” Their debut marks the first boy group of SM after 26-membered NCT, whose first subunits came out in 2016. – with additional reports from Ally de Leon/Rappler.com
Ally de Leon is a Rappler intern.
