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What Happened to RIIZE’s Seventh Member, Seunghan? The Group’s Controversy Explained

SM Entertainment's rookie boy band RIIZE preaches authenticity, but the K-pop label's silence tells a different, understandably complicated story.

But the way its label, K-pop giant SM Entertainment, has handled a controversy involving one of the group’s original members has provided a high-stakes window into the ongoing tension between South Korean artists balancing the demands of international careers with the country’s more traditional, accepted social norms. Interviews for the piece occurred almost exactly six months after SM announced that Seunghan would “halt activities” with RIIZE following an August 2023 leak of private, pre-RIIZE photos and videos that showed him kissing an unidentified woman in a bed and smoking a cigarette. On Nov. 22, 2023, SM Entertainment uploaded a notice that Seunghan was “feeling severely apologetic and is reflecting on himself for causing disappointment and commotion to not only the team and members but also to fans due to issues regarding his personal life that are leaked and circulated.”

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