Rescene’s Woni faces backlash over video post

K-pop star accused of using far-right slang, supporters say it was a regional dialect ending Rescene (The Muze Entertainment) A K-pop singer from South Gyeongsang Province has been swept into a controversy after she was accused of using a phrase resembling far-right internet slang in a video posted last month. Woni, 22, a member of the girl group Rescene, used the phrase “Museop-no,” meaning “It’s scary,” in a video posted to YouTube channel on June 28. The phrase drew attention after Kim Hyun-ji, a producer at MBC Gyeongnam, claimed on X that the ending “no” was associated with Ilbe, a far-right online community. Ilbe has long been known for misogynistic and extremist posts, as well as for mocking the late former President Roh Moo-hyun. Some Ilbe posters have used distorted forms of the Korean sentence ending “no” as a way to mock Roh, whose surname is pronounced “No” in Korean. Kim wrote on Wednesday that it saddened her to see “ordinary people, innocent teenagers and likable people” using “no” without questioning it. Dialect or coded slang? Woni’s comment quickly drew criticism from people who said her use of the phrase was not Ilbe slang but natural use of the southeastern dialect. Woni was born and raised in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, a region where the dialect ending “no” is widely used. The debate centers on whether Woni’s use of “no” was natural in context. In standard explanations of the southeastern dialect, “no” is often described as an ending used in certain questions requiring specific answers, while “na” is used in yes-or-no questions. But many speakers from the region have pushed back, saying the ending is not limited to such questions. Ahn Tae-hyeong, a linguistics expert at Dong-A University, said in a media interview that “no” can also appear when speakers talk to themselves or express emotions. In the video, Woni says, “It’s scary. Even the lighting is scary,” while reacting to the atmosphere around her. For critics of Kim’s claim, the case is not simply about whether a celebrity used a controversial syllable. They argue that Woni’s phrase is rooted in a regional dialect spoken by millions of people in southeastern Korea, turning the dispute into a broader debate over how to distinguish hate-coded internet slang from ordinary local speech. Woni is known among fans for speaking with a strong Gyeongsang accent. Supporters say her use of the expression sounded natural for someone from Geoje, rather than like an intentional reference to Ilbe. Several public figures from the southeastern region have also weighed in. Comedian Kim Si-duck, from North Gyeongsang Province, said there was nothing wrong with Woni’s wording and that the regional dialect has many local variations. Some also noted that Roh himself, who was born and raised in South Gyeongsang Province, used the ending “no” in ordinary speech years before Ilbe became widely known. Woni (left) of Rescene appears in a video posted to her official YouTube channel on June 28. The text overlay reads: “It’s scary. Even the lighting is scary." (YouTube) Politicians weigh in Politicians from both the conservative and liberal sides have also criticized Kim’s claim. Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the main opposition People Power Party said he was “baffled” by the idea of labeling a dialect expression as Ilbe slang. “By that logic, Kang San-eh’s song ‘Wa Geureo-no?’ should also be banned,” Yoon wrote on Facebook, referring to a song by the singer from Geoje who grew up in Busan. The title roughly means “Why are you doing that?” in the regional dialect. Ha Heon-gi, a political commentator and youth spokesperson for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, said it is impossible to determine whether someone is speaking naturally or mocking Roh based solely on the use of the ending “no.” Ha is from the southeastern region and speaks with a strong regional accent. Cho Kuk, leader of the minor liberal Rebuilding Korea Party, wrote separately that “no” is used in questions requiring specific answers. Although he did not mention Kim or Woni by name, the post was widely interpreted as siding with Kim’s view. Kim closed her Instagram account after facing criticism. Before the account was shut down, she said that she had not been wrong to point out what she believed was an incorrect use of the suffix. Woni and her agency have yet to comment on the issue. Why is Ilbe-related language controversial? The controversy surrounding the phrase stems from Ilbe’s long association with far-right politics, misogyny and mockery of victims of national tragedies. The community has been criticized in the past for offensive comments about victims of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush and the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster. During a hunger strike by bereaved families of Sewol victims, some Ilbe users staged a counterdemonstration by eating food in front of them and shouting insults. The stigma attached to Ilbe has led to past controversies in which celebrities were accused of using Ilbe-linked expressions, sometimes deliberately and sometimes unknowingly. In 2013, K-pop singer Jun Hyo-seong was criticized after using the phrase “We don’t do democratization” in a negative context. The term had been used on Ilbe to mean “oppress” or “oppose,” distorting the meaning of democratization associated with South Korea’s pro-democracy history. Jun later said she did not know the meaning of the phrase and had mistaken it for ordinary internet slang. Although she faced intense criticism at the time, she is not generally regarded by the public today as an Ilbe supporter and has since paid tribute to victims of the Sewol ferry disaster. Woni’s case has since become less about one idol’s wording than about the difficulty of separating regional speech from politically charged internet slang in a country where a single syllable can carry sharply different meanings depending on who hears it.