Lee Young Ji Red Hair Pic Sparks Fan Frenzy

Singer Lee Young-ji has drawn attention for suddenly deleting photos posted on social media (SNS) wearing red clothing ahead of the June 3rd local elections. On the 30th, Lee Young-ji uploaded two photos to her SNS story, featuring her new hairstyle and daily life. In the photos, Lee Young-ji showcased her red-dyed hair and said, "Isn't my hair color pretty?" In another photo posted subsequently, she was seen wearing a red t-shirt with her red hair.

The issue is that it is currently a campaign period. In particular, early voting for the June 3rd local elections and National Assembly by-elections took place nationwide on the 29th and 30th. Consequently, posts on online communities and SNS began linking Lee Young-ji's red hairstyle and outfit to specific political parties. Seemingly realizing this, Lee Young-ji quickly deleted the posts. This is interpreted as a measure to preemptively block a simple sharing of daily life from escalating into an unnecessary political controversy.

Some opinions emerged that excessive meaning was attributed due to the timing coinciding with the sensitive election season, despite the high likelihood of it being just a fashion choice. Previously, model-turned-broadcaster Hong Jin-kyung also faced criticism for wearing clothes that reminded people of a specific political party during an election period. Hong Jin-kyung uploaded several photos of her recent activities in Sweden on SNS on June 2nd, the day before the general election for the 21st National Assembly. At that time, her wearing a red knit sweater led to voices questioning if she was revealing her political leanings.

Following the controversy, Hong Jin-kyung apologized via SNS, saying, "I felt so sorry seeing celebrities acting in ways that could be misunderstood during the voting period, and to make such a foolish mistake during this sensitive time, I am truly dumbfounded by myself." She added, "Because I live so far removed from life in Korea and spend so much time overseas, I seem to have lost my sense of caution. It was clearly my mistake. I sincerely apologize for confusing everyone during this sensitive time." Hong Jin-kyung later mentioned the political controversy on the web entertainment show "Pinggyego," emphasizing that she had no political intentions whatsoever, stating, "If there was even 0.1% of intention in the photos I posted, I would have been scared, but since there was absolutely none, I thought the misunderstanding would eventually be cleared up."

Meanwhile, early voting for the June 3rd local elections concluded on the 30th with a turnout of 23.51%, the highest for local elections. The National Election Commission announced that a preliminary count showed 10,498,411 out of a total of 44,649,908 eligible voters participated in the early voting, which took place from 6 a.m. on the 29th to 6 p.m. on the 30th. This figure is 2.89 percentage points higher than the previous record for early voting in local elections, which was 20.62% in the 8th local elections in 2022. With early voting concluding at a record high turnout, attention is now focused on the turnout for the main local elections scheduled for June 3rd.