The Top 5 K-Pop Scandals Of 2013: From Ailee's Allkpop Nude Photos To Psy's 'Assarabia' A Look Back At The Year's Controversies

This year had no shortage of K-pop controversies, and the fans had no shortage of fury when provoked. In reverse chronological order, here are five stories that had everyone buzzing in 2013.

1. Allkpop publishes unauthorized nude photos of Ailee.

As anyone who watches the world of South Korean entertainment knows by now, Ailee became one of K-pop's most talked about stars when the New Jersey-based website allkpop published unauthorized nude photos of the 24-year-old American-born singer on Nov. 10.

The Ailee nude photos had been censored with black bars before being taken down completely from the site earlier this month, following thousands of negative reader comments.

6Theory Media, the parent company of allkpop, claims to have gotten the images from the anonymous image board AnonIB. But the fact that Ailee's ex-boyfriend Daniel Lee, who is the vice president of content for allkpop, admitted that he attempted to sell the photos to Dispatch, has left many readers convinced that he leaked the photos.

Outrage over the incident has led some allkpop readers, most notably the editors of the British online publication Beyond Hallyu, to boycott the website completely.

2. Fan files legal complaint against semi-trot singer Jang Yoon Jung demanding she apologize to her own mother for her "Healing Camp" comments.

In what has to be the South Korean entertainment world's strangest legal spectacle of 2013, a fan of Jang Yun Jeong filed a complaint with police in the city of Yongin on Oct. 22, demanding that the singer tell her own mother she's sorry for saying the family bankrupted her, on the television program "Healing Camp Aren't You Happy."

"I lost all of the money that I made and I currently have debt in the hundreds of thousands of dollars," Jang said, in the now infamous "Healing Camp" interview.

"I gave all of the money I made after my debut to my parents but after my parents got divorced, I was going through my 10 years worth of savings and discovered that it all disappeared and the only thing I had left were debts."

According to the news program "Good Day," a man named Mr. Song initially claiming to be the former president of the Jang Yoon Jung fan club, filed the police complaint.

"Jang Joon Young [verbally] assaulted her mother," Song said in an interview last month with the publication Koogle.tv.

"Her mother wrote her many letters and tried to contact her, but [Jang Yoon Jung] did not respond at all. So I felt a responsibility as her fan club president and made the complaint in hopes of grasping at the wronged family's history right away at least through the law."

Song claimed that if his accusations against the semi-trot singer were proven to have no merit, he would fling off his clothes near the main gate of Seoul's Gyeongbokgung Palace.

3. South Korean Ministry of Defense shuts down Promotional Support Brigade after Sangchu of Mighty Mouth and Se7en are caught breaking army rules on camera.

On July 18, South Korea's National Ministry Of Defense announced that they would be eliminating their controversial celebrity recruit unit of the public relations wing of their Defense Media Agency, known as the Promotional Support Brigade, which had been started in 1997.

"The promotional support brigade was set up to promote the military and raise the morale of soldiers, but due to the unpleasant issues that have occurred, the military's image has only been tarnished," read an official army statement, according to the publication Star News.

The "Scene 21" footage, which caused a public outcry when it aired in June, showed members of the promotional support brigade wandering the streets after curfew out of uniform, chatting on their cellphones and purchasing alcohol at 2 a.m.

K-pop stars Sangchu of the group Mighty Mouth and Se7en were filmed visiting a massage parlor known for providing erotic services.

4. Police find the body of Son Ho Young's ex-girlfriend in the G.O.D. singer's car.

When local police Seoul's Gangnam District pulled the lifeless body of Son Ho Young's girlfriend from a car registered to the G.O.D. singer on May 21, he was initially brought in as a suspect.

Although police released Son following several hours of questioning, the tragedy of his girlfriend's death, later ruled a suicide, sent the G.O.D. singer into a tailspin.

Son spent over a week at Seoul's Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital after he allegedly attempted to kill himself in the same manner as his girlfriend, by lighting a coal briquette inside his car and taking an overdose on sleeping pills, four days after her body was discovered.

Son's ex-girlfriend reportedly cited her relationship with the singer in her suicide note as being one reason she chose to end her life.

"I feel disappointed by Son Ho Young," she wrote.

5. Psy almost gives "Gentleman" the title "Assarabia."

K-pop's King of YouTube found out that with great power comes great responsibility as he was forced to change the name of his highly-anticipated follow-up single to "Gangnam Style," after it was believed the song's working title "Assarabia" could offend Arabic listeners.

"Not sure how this will go over in the Middle East," Steve Herman, chief of Voice of America's Northeast Asia bureau tweeted on March 17, following an announcement by Psy, that people were having difficulty pronouncing his new single "Assarabia."

Later that Herman wrote on Twitter that Psy had direct messaged him about the "Assarabia" controversy.

"It's Korean slang and should be spelled "AssaraVia," Psy wrote, according to Herman.

The fact the letter 'v' doesn't have an equivalent in the Korean alphabet was the cause for the confusion, according to the Korean rapper.

The following day Psy announced he was changing both the name and the title of "Assaravia," a word that indicates excitement in Korean.

He didn't say why, but a spokesman for his record label YG Entertainment told the Wall Street Journal it was because the possible "Gangnam Style" follow-up was difficult to pronounce.

After breaking several YouTube records and receiving over 600 million views, it is impossible to know if the title "Assarabia" could have derailed the massive success of "Gentleman."

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Ailee nude photos
Ailee
son ho young
Jang Yoon Jung
Se7en
PR Officer Scandal
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