{"id":152140,"date":"2025-09-18T13:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T13:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152140\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T13:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T13:20:07","slug":"wonder-girls-sunye-super-juniors-choi-si-won-face-backlash-after-posting-tributes-to-charlie-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152140\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonder Girls\u2019 Sunye, Super Junior\u2019s Choi Si-won face backlash after posting tributes to Charlie Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SEOUL \u2013 South Korean singer Sunye, a former member of K-pop girl group Wonder Girls, has come under fire after posting a social media tribute to American conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The 31-year-old was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/united-states\/conservative-commentator-charlie-kirk-shot-at-us-university-event-nbc-news-reports?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">fatally shot during a debate event<\/p>\n<p><\/a> at Utah Valley University in the United States on Sept 10.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Sunye\u2019s post followed similar messages posted by K-pop boy band Super Junior\u2019s Choi Si-won, who also drew criticism for mourning Mr Kirk, due to the activist\u2019s history of controversial statements that often stirred political discord.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A co-founder of conservative youth-focused organisation Turning Point USA and a prominent supporter of US President Donald Trump, Mr Kirk frequently focused on culture-war issues and made contentious remarks on gender, race and politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Sept 16, Sunye, 36, uploaded a clip of Mr Kirk\u2019s memorial to her Instagram story, along with a passage from the Bible. The post was removed shortly after, likely in response to mounting backlash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Some fans and online commentators opposing Mr Kirk expressed disappointment, saying they would unfollow Sunye and calling the situation heartbreaking for her long-time supporters. Critical remarks have continued to appear under her other posts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Choi, 39, also shared a memorial post on Sept 11 from Christian group Bible Alive and American preacher John Bevere, who described Mr Kirk as \u201cone of America\u2019s heroes\u201d who was \u201cbold in his stand against evil\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Choi deleted his post after criticism that it appeared to endorse Mr Kirk\u2019s conservative stance. The South Korean singer-actor also issued an explanation through fan platform Bubble on Sept 12. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI deleted the post because it seemed my intention was being misinterpreted,\u201d Choi said. \u201cRegardless of politics, the fact that he lost his life in front of so many university students is a heartbreaking tragedy. That was the reason I mourned him.\u201d THE\u00a0KOREA\u00a0HERALD\/ASIA NEWS NETWORK <\/p>\n<p>K-popCelebritiesSocial mediaSouth KoreaShooting &#8211; gun crime<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL \u2013 South Korean singer Sunye, a former member of K-pop girl group Wonder Girls, has come under&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-152140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}