(MBC)

Kim Jae-hwan of the boy band Wanna One is caught up in a controversy over racism for his alleged use of a derogatory word for African-Americans during MBC’s music show “Show Champion.”

Kim appeared on the show Wednesday and introduced himself with a short rap. His rap centered on wordplay using the Korean expression “wasseo,” which means “(I) came,” and the English expression “What’s up.”

The rap originally meant “Yo, naega wasseo (Yo, I came),” but some international fans thought it sounded like he had used the N-word. Twitter user @nctelitist1 said, “so this is kim jaehwan of wanna one saying ‘n-----,’ that show champion tried to hide,” along with a video clip of Kim’s rap.

The news caused a stir among international fans, with another Twitter user @Dope_1995 saying, “omg he def said it … this boy needs to be careful.”

(Twitter account of @happy121257)

Korean fans tried to resolve the misunderstanding and soothe angry fans by explaining Kim’s rap.

Some countered the claims of racism by saying that non-Koreans were disrespecting the Korean language.

Twitter user @happy121257 said, “You guys should accept the difference of languages. … This is ‘racism’ because you guys don’t respect our culture.”

By Kim So-yeon (syk19372@heraldcorp.com)