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On August 14, 2024, HYBE reportedly responded to BTS' Min Yoongi aka Suga's removal from the group. The company reportedly stated that rumors of the rapper leaving the band are baseless. This was initially reported by the South Korean media outlet YTN, however, they later deleted the article. The caption read:
"This article has been removed at the request of the press."
Meanwhile, Koreaboo reported on the subject before YTN deleted the original statement where HYBE said,
"Talk of Suga leaving BTS is nonsense. We will apologize and work harder to resolve the conflict among fans." (as reported and translated by Koreaboo).
For the unversed, BTS' Suga got tangled in a DUI incident on August 7, 2024, when he was fined by the police for drunk driving an electric scooter near his house. Several netizens sent flower wreaths outside HYBE and demanded the rapper's resignation or removal from BTS. However, HYBE reportedly shut down all those rumors with its statement.
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Meanwhile, fans reacted to the news and were baffled by some netizens' demands for Suga's withdrawal from the group. One fan wrote on the Korean online forum, TheQoo, and said,
"Are you crazy?"
Fans flooded social media with their supportive messages for the BTS rapper and called out netizens and "antis" for their "ridiculous" reaction. They lashed out at a Korean media outlet for allegedly deleting HYBE's official response where they addressed rumors of Suga leaving the band as "nonsense."
"Cowards KMedia are started deleting news. But they forget ARMYs have already saved the receipts. Idiots think Deleting news articles will definitely make the evidence disappear," one fan said.
"SUGA is the backbone of BTS, he and the other members have renewed their contract even for God knows when, and he can still continue his solo project as a member of BTS lmao yall are indeed ridiculous for saying he should leave BTS," one fan wrote.
"Deletion of Articles,accounts and tweets is what?? You spewed hatred, constantly defamed him and YOU THINK DELETION IS ENOUGH?? HELL NO," another fan wrote.
Others highlighted that the BTS fandom has no internal conflict within itself and they stand united in support of the rapper. This stemmed from the fact that some netizens claimed that BTS ARMY wanted Suga to leave the band.
"Why are they even putting the word withdrawal out in the universe? We have no conflict among the real fans just the media, the antis and the solos. Oh sweet Yoongi, you don’t need to apologize again, we love you and we know you are sorry for what happened," another fan added.
"If anyone has “conflict” with his very human mistake then they can go. Let BTS members be humans before they have to be anything/ anyone else," one other fan commented.
"Ikr VERY RIDICULOUS!!!! just because of a bike???? whatever that is !! we saw the vid and there is no denying that a running man can even surpass the speed of his drive," one fan stated.
More about BTS Suga and his DUI incident
BTS rapper and songwriter Min Yoongi aka Suga apologised on August 7, 2024, for drunk driving a foldable electric scooter. It is important to note that the maximum speed of an electric scooter is 30 km/hr and the rapper was allegedly riding it slower than that.
The actual CCTV footage released by Dong-a Ilbo news outlet on August 14, reveals the rapper riding the foldable electric scooter at a slower pace on the biker's lane near his home. He fell down while taking a turn and got up immediately and picked up his helmet. However, before the real footage came to light, the Korean media and public backlash towards the idol had been severe.
The BTS ARMY lashed out at the Korean media for unethical reporting and distortion of facts after Dong-a Ilbo reported the real clip. For the unversed, on August 7, news outlet JTBC released a false blurry CCTV footage of a person who could be seen speeding on a scooter on the road.
On August 15, JTBC confirmed that their previously released clip was inaccurate and the person was not Suga. However, ARMYs blamed the media outlet for smearing the rapper's reputation with false reporting for a week.
They expressed their disappointment towards other Korean media houses such as Yonhap, Korea Times, KBS, SBS, Maeil Business Newspaper, and Ten Asia, for false reporting. Fans also demanded that they apologize to the BTS rapper.
Currently, Suga is serving his military duty and the Military Manpower Administration stated on August 7 that the incident occurred outside duty hours, hence no actions will be taken against him.
