Despite a Strong Atmosphere of Crackdown,
Overzealous Sasaeng Fans Persist
"Not only at the accommodation but also at his home, sasaeng fans showed up. After midnight, you can hear the sound of the door being opened. If ignored, they bang outside."
K-pop stars are struggling. It is because of sasaeng fans, who are so extreme that they invade privacy.
Singer Kim Jaejoong has revealed several times the damage caused by sasaeng fans. "One day, I dreamed of a woman kissing me, but it felt like it wasn’t just a dream, so I opened my eyes. A woman was looking down at me. It was really scary," or "It’s natural for sasaeng fans to enter my house, and wherever I go, there is a sasaeng taxi." There was even a shocking story: "While I was at home, I received a photo from an unknown number. At a glance, it was my back. It meant they were inside my house. They took the photo inside and sent it after going outside." Eventually, Kim Jaejoong made a sasaeng fan-targeting song called 'Hajima' on his 20th debut anniversary full-length 4th album 'Flower Garden.'
TXT member Taehyun recently posted on his account, "I was happily holding a fan signing event with Moa (official fandom name) and was returning to Korea, but someone reserved and changed only the in-flight meals for the members’ seats. It’s fine if we don’t eat, but I don’t understand why they did that or how the system allows changing someone else’s meal."
There are countless other cases. Some even follow into the men’s restroom disguised as men, steal celebrities’ resident registration numbers to create wiretapping clone phones, or attach tracking devices to vehicles to follow them. Some even deliberately cause car accidents because they want to face the celebrity directly after getting out of the car.
The discomfort is indescribable, but since sasaeng fans are still fans, the atmosphere has been to endure it unless it is a serious case. However, now both artists and agencies are forming a strong stance to respond.
HYBE has formed a separate task force since last year to respond to illegal trading of artist flight ticket information and recently filed a police complaint against a group suspected of trading illegally obtained information. In January this year, the court sentenced a woman in her 40s to six months in prison for ringing the doorbell several times at the house of actor Bi and Kim Tae-hee’s couple. In November last year, a woman in her 20s who visited BTS member V’s house, spoke to him, and handed over a marriage registration form was sent to the prosecution on charges of violating the Stalking Punishment Act and trespassing.
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