Kwon Mina's latest scandal makes netizens reevaluate AOA bullying claims

Kwon Mina is best known for being an ex-member of the K-pop girl group AOA, and for her outspokenness about her experiences during her time in the girl group. However, she is now on the Korean tabloids for a different reason -- for being involved in a cheating scandal.

Content warning: this article contains mentions of bullying, violence and self-harm and may disturb some readers.

(Image: FNC Entertainment)

Kwon Mina, also known by her stage name Mina, is an ex-K-pop star and performed under the girl group AOA. However, in 2019, she left the group to pursue acting full-time.

(Image: FNC Entertainment)

After leaving AOA in 2019, Kwon Mina decided to go into acting full time. However, in July 2020, Kwon Mina suddenly posted some damning allegations about her experience in AOA on Instagram -- that she had been bullied for a decade by another AOA member, Shin Jimin.

(Image: kvwowv on Instagram, FNC Entertainment)

In the aftermath of exposing and alleging Shin Jimin had bullied her for a decade, Shin Jimin was booted from the girl group. Kwon Mina also decided to leave acting and terminated her contract with Woori Actors in September 2020.

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Since exposing her bully online, Kwon Mina has been very open on social media about her past trauma and experiences with being bullied and abused as a K-pop trainee. However, many have found her behaviour worrying as Kwon Mina’s social media would have posts on the ideation of ending one's life.

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Kwon Mina has also been known to be very graphic with her social media posts. In August 2020 and in April this year, Kwon Mina posted graphic images accompanied with distressing captions. They even included an apparent suicide note, Allkpop reported. The posts have since been taken down.

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Since then, Kwon Mina has been known in the K-entertainment circles to be an emotionally troubled star and a figure of controversy for being open about her struggles with mental health on social media.

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On June 28, Kwon Mina made waves in the K-entertainment world yet again -- but for a different and happier reason! It seemed that she had found happiness in love, as she posted a picture of herself and an unknown man on Instagram. From Allkpop, when questioned by a commenter on whether the man in question was her boyfriend, Kwon Mina replied: “Yes”.

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However, one netizen came out online on Nate Pann to claim that Kwon Mina’s current boyfriend is actually the boyfriend of a friend, Allkpop reports. The anonymous netizen further added that Kwon Mina knew that the man in question had a girlfriend and that he was still living together with the girlfriend when Kwon Mina posted the now-controversial photo on Instagram.

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Responding to the post, Kwon Mina took to Instagram to tell her side of the story. From Koreaboo, Kwon Mina responded by saying that her boyfriend had already broken up with his ex before the two started a relationship. She also acknowledged that she knew about him having a girlfriend at the time.

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In a report on Koreaboo, the man in the love triangle also came out on an Instagram post to respond to the allegations. Identifying himself as Yoo Joon Young, he supported Kwon Mina’s claims that he had broken up with his ex-girlfriend before dating Kwon Mina, and that there was no cheating involved in the formation of his new relationship.

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Contrary to Kwon Mina and Yoo Joon Young’s accounts, the ex-girlfriend of Yoo Joon Young released a statement on Nate Pann to assert that she and Yoo Joon Young had not broken up at all prior to Kwon Mina’s very public declaration of her relationship with Yoo. From MEAWW, Yoo Joon Young did not mention ending the relationship at any point, and the ex-girlfriend only knew of his infidelity from Kwon Mina’s Instagram post.

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After the post on Nate Pann from his alleged ex-girlfriend, Yoo Joon Young deleted his Instagram post and is now on a hiatus from social media. From KBIZoom, he has changed his Instagram name and set it to private.

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This incident has led many netizens to speculate that the accounts on Nate Pann were true after all, and that Kwon Mina and Yoo Joon Young had indeed cheated and started a relationship on unethical grounds.

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Indian Express reports that soon after the alleged ex-girlfriend’s post went online on Nate Pann, many netizens then took to accusing Kwon Mina of being a cheater on her Instagram page. In response, she accused the father of the ex-girlfriend of sending threatening messages to her and also threatened legal action against netizens who were shaming her online.

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The ex-girlfriend denied Kwon Mina’s new allegations by stating that her father had no such contact with Kwon Mina. He was only messaging Yoo Joon Young to take down the photos of his daughter that were still up on Instagram, according to Indian Express.

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On 4 July, Kwon Mina had an Instagram Live session where she addressed the whole incident once again. From MEAWW, Kwon Mina changed her tune by apologizing and acknowledging that she was indeed the third party in the relationship, and added that Yoo Joon Young had also withheld the truth of not having broken up with his ex-girlfriend before getting into a new relationship with Mina. Finally, she announced that she had broken up with Yoo.

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Despite how the topic focus was meant to be on the cheating scandal, Kwon Mina strangely brought up AOA and randomly revealed the private details of one initially unnamed AOA member’s sex life. Netizens were puzzled and some even took to calling out Kwon Mina for unnecessarily exposing this information on Instagram. They even called her own personal sexual history into question after this revelation, MEAWW reports.

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Since the Live session on Instagram, Kwon Mina has been accused of starting a wave of harassment by internet trolls towards current AOA members, as netizens are curious to find out the unnamed member in question. Allkpop reports that in the midst of the new drama, Kwon Mina revealed the person’s identity to be her bully, Shin Jimin.

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According to several reports, netizens are confused by Kwon Mina's sudden change of topic to AOA in her Instagram Live session as well as in her Instagram posts about the cheating saga. Koreaboo notes that Kwon Mina had specifically begged netizens to stop mentioning anything regarding AOA during the cheating incident, only for her to ironically bring up the topic herself.

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Since the incident, Allkpop reports, the official fan club of AOA, DC Gallery, have come out to reevaluate their position on AOA’s bullying scandal. The fan club has called upon FNC Entertainment to step up in protecting the current members of AOA.

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DC Gallery’s new position on the bullying matter includes the fan club pointing out some discrepancies between Kwon Mina’s accusations and official reports on the matter. Hence DC Gallery is asking for FNC Entertainment to take legal action against slander and false information for any parties involved in the matter -- which may include Kwon Mina herself.

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The entire saga has drawn mixed responses on Twitter.  MEAWW reports that, despite the questioning of Kwon Mina’s credibility by netizens and DC Gallery, “[it does not] make her any less of a victim of Jimin’s bullying”. In fact, many netizens have grown even more concerned for Kwon Mina’s mental health after the incident and are calling for her to take a step down from social media.

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Intending to conclude the drama (for now), Kwon Mina mentioned in a July 6 Instagram post that she intends to take a break from social media to “reflect on [herself] quietly for the moment”. However, on 13 July, Kwon Mina made a sudden move by changing her Instagram bio.

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It seems that this won’t be the last of the cheating and bullying saga surrounding Kwon Mina. Allkpop reports that on July 13, Kwon Mina made a bold announcement on her Instagram bio and promised to “reveal the accurate truth, including all the small details” regarding Yoo Joon Young and Shin Jimin.

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Read more about the bullying scandal of Shin Jimin and Kwon Mina in AOA