ENHYPEN's Jay Shares New Apology For Remarks About Korean History + His Choice Of Words In 1st Apology

ENHYPEN’s Jay has made a second apology regarding his remarks about Korean history and his initial apology from last week.

Earlier this month, Jay came under fire for a Weverse live broadcast during which he and Sunghoon discussed Korean history. When Sunghoon said, “I used to really not enjoy [studying] history, but I find Korean history fun these days,” Jay responded, “I [prefer] world history. I learned a good amount of Korean history in school.” Sunghoon reiterated, “It’s fun [to read about]. Because the archiving was done so well.”

Jay then replied, “But there’s also this. Because I like studying history so much, [I see] there isn’t that much information [to study] about Korean history.” Sunghoon disagreed, “There is a lot of information. It’s all recorded, event by event.”

Comparing Korean history unfavorably to that of other nations, Jay continued, “If you study for a few weeks or skim over it, it’s over really quickly. It feels like a short story. With other countries, [the history] never ends. I’ve studied the history of so many nations, and it just keeps going, without an end.”

After many criticized his remarks as offensive and an inaccurate description of Korean history, Jay posted an apology on Weverse the following day. However, his apology also wound up drawing criticism, with some believing that certain Korean words used in the apology conveyed a flippant and dismissive tone.

Jay, who was born in the United States and holds dual citizenship, has attended school in Korea since his elementary school years.

On January 18, Jay took to Weverse to post a second apology in which he addressed both his initial remarks and his choice of words in his first apology.

Jay’s full statement is as follows:

Hello, this is ENHYPEN’s Jay.

I’m writing this because I want to deeply apologize once again for using the wrong expressions and misrepresenting our nation’s history during our Weverse Live on January 10.

I apologize for the fact that, without knowing enough about our nation’s deep history, I misrepresented it due to my lacking vocabulary. At the time of the live broadcast, I was expressing my thoughts on Korean history based only on the limited material I had encountered, and I didn’t realize that I could be conveying the wrong message. Although the fellow member who was with me tried to fix this, I was too careless at the time to realize that.

Also, my choice of words in my previous apology was very lacking. I should have been more careful in deciding what to say, and I apologize for this as well. Using the wrong expressions and misrepresenting our nation’s long history when I don’t even have the vocabulary to properly express my apologetic feelings was truly thoughtless behavior.

After the Weverse live and my previous post, I realized the weight of my mistake while reading the words of ENGENE [ENHYPEN’s fans] and many people, and my heart ached. I felt how my mistake could grow into a huge problem, and I reflected on my mistake. However, I also felt that this wasn’t a matter that could be solved only by self-reflection, and in order to make right something that started with my words, I thought I needed to properly acknowledge my wrongdoing and make another apology. I thought that there shouldn’t be another lacking choice of expression in this apology as well, so I pondered over it and wound up posting this message a bit late.

I’m still thinking about and wondering what I should do to avoid repeating this kind of mistake again. I think the ideas I’ve thought of up until now are still lacking. I will ponder it more deeply, and I want to consistently show you my efforts through actions rather than words. I will make an effort in the future to become a careful person who listens to what many people have to say.

Because it seems that I have caused great damage to our group through my lacking expressions, I am sincerely sorry to the ENHYPEN members and the ENGENE who love us. I will make an effort to not only say this with words, but to actually become a better person and stand before ENGENE.

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