Ex-Wonder Girls member Sunye defends tribute to Charlie Kirk after social media backlash
Published: 18 Sep. 2025, 18:30
![Singer Sunye [BLOCKBERRY CREATIVE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/09/18/d30986a3-29c6-47d5-b7f7-c922e00a96d7.jpg)
Singer Sunye [BLOCKBERRY CREATIVE]
Sunye, a former member of the K-pop group Wonder Girls, defended herself Wednesday after facing backlash over a social media tribute to Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist fatally shot this month.
“Are you laughing at the death of a human life?” she wrote on Instagram. “Please refrain from demeaning and inhumane comments.”
Sunye explained that she had posted the message of condolence after watching a video of Kirk’s widow mourning her husband. “As a mother myself, my heart ached, so I shared a tribute,” she said. “But strangers I don’t even know came to my page to hurl insults and vent their political anger.”
“Why go that far?” she continued. “A person has died, and I felt moved to mourn. Are you smiling, thinking, ‘It serves him right’? Are you angry with me simply because I refused to stay silent?”
The singer added that she had spoken “not as a celebrity, mother or woman, but as a person paying respect to the tragic death of another human being.”
“It’s precisely because we are different that we can find better ways forward,” she said. “I believe in creating a better world through these difficult but beautiful encounters.”
Sunye urged people not to drag her tribute into political or religious debates, stressing that she would no longer tolerate “rude and dehumanizing behavior” on her social media.
Kirk, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and head of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, was shot and killed while giving a lecture at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
Sunye had posted a memorial message following his death, but later deleted it after a wave of online criticism. Other Korean celebrities, including Super Junior’s Choi Si-won and actors Jin Seo-yeon and Choi Joon-yong, also faced backlash for sharing similar tributes.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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