South Korea petitioned to probe BLACKPINK Jennie’s ‘vaping incident’

AFP | Seoul

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

A now-deleted video showing K-pop megastar Jennie of BLACKPINK apparently smoking a vape indoors has sparked online outcry, with Seoul’s foreign ministry telling AFP yesterday it had received a formal complaint.

In the footage, uploaded as part of a live blog on YouTube for fans but subsequently removed even as copies of it spread across the internet, Jennie appears to exhale vape smoke while a bevvy of hair and make-up artists work closely on her face.

Smoking cigarettes or vapes indoors is illegal in South Korea and the footage triggered headlines and online outrage, with “indoor smoking” and “BLACKPINK Jennie” becoming top trending topics on X in the South.

“Controversy over Jennie’s indoor smoking... exhaling smoke in the face of her staff,” was the headline of the Yonhap news agency’s report on the incident, typical of the widespread reporting in Korean-language media.

One internet user claimed the incident likely happened in Italy’s Capri, where Jennie had been filming, and said they had requested that the South Korean Embassy in Italy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs probe the BLACKPINK star, the Korea Times reported.