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K-pop star Kim Jae-joong apologizes after telling fans he had coronavirus on April Fool's Day

2020-04-02T19:54:27.359Z


K-pop star Kim Jae-joon, who is a singer for boy band JYJ, told his Instagram followers on Wednesday that he had been hospitalized after contracting the virus: "Est ...


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How do celebrities live their days in a pandemic? 1:41

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) - K-pop star Kim Jae-joon apologized after telling his fans on April Fool's Day that he had caught the coronavirus.

Kim, who is a singer for the boy band JYJ, told his Instagram followers on Wednesday that he had been hospitalized after contracting the virus: "I am infected with the covid-19 virus," he wrote.

In a now deleted message, the pop star said he had ignored the government's warnings.

April Fool's Day, or April's Fool, is celebrated on April 1 of each year and is traditionally a day when people joke with each other.

Many of the star's 1.9 million followers expressed outrage at his comments, and one social media user wrote, "A joke about the coronavirus is not funny, but childish and pointless."

The singer apologized for the publication, admitting that his judgment "was not correct."

Still, Kim's actions have caused anger. A petition calling for the singer to be punished was posted on the President's Office website, and had been signed by more than 13,000 people at 5:20 pm local time [4:20 am ET] on Thursday.

In a statement posted to Instagram, the star claimed he was trying to raise awareness of the virus, which has killed at least 169 people in South Korea, and has sickened almost 10,000 people in the country.

"First of all, I sincerely apologize to those who were affected and to those whose administrative work was hampered because of the post I wrote on social media and because of covid-19," Kim wrote.

The singer added that "he wanted to convey the dangers of this moment to people who do not listen while there are large and small warnings in various media and the Internet."

When asked by a journalist on Thursday whether Kim would be penalized for the publication, Yoon Tae-ho, director general of public health policies at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said: “Currently, cases of providing false information to an epidemiological investigator or to Medical personnel during epidemiological investigation or treatment can be punished in accordance with the Infectious Diseases Prevention Law ”. But he said that Kim's case does not fall under these conditions.

"If there are other factors for punishment, we will have to see, but it is difficult to punish under the Infectious Diseases Prevention Act," added Yoon during the press conference.

K-pop

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-04-02

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