Kang Dong Won publicly apologizes for ancestry controversy 

Kang Dong Won publicly apologizes for ancestry controversy

Actor Kang Dong Won has publicly apologized for past controversy involving his great-grandfather. 

SEE ALSO: Kang Dong Won to make his first public appearance since controversy surrounding ancestry

Though he\'s already released an official apology through

YG Entertainment, this is the first time the actor personally spoke publicly about the matter. He made his first appearance since the controversy at the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) for his film \'Master\' on May 3 and addressed the issue head on.

Kang Dong Won stated, "Early this year, there was a controversy about my grandfather. I want to apologize for this in a public space. There haven\'t been opportunities or spaces for me to do so. With this chance, I want to apologize once again. I will continue to study and reflect on the truth of this embarrassing history. I\'m sorry for speaking on a personal issue like this."

As previously reported, Kang Dong Won is known to be the great-grandson of 

Chinilpa- a group of Koreans who were pro-Japanese and collaborated with Japan during the Japanese occupation of Korea. 

i forget specifics but i think he said he really respects his grandfather and the things he did but it was found that his grandfather was pro-japanese when Japan occupied Korea and did bad stuff

Poor guy. Its not easy coming to terms with ur dark ancestory. Dnt apologize anymorE KDW. u\'ve spoken up already u asked for forgiveness now live ur life

As President of Korea, who always worked hard to defend our country interests,to defend our past and denounce Japanese hegemony, I am happy to see that Mr Kang dong won recognize the crimes of his ancestors and beg forgiveness for their sins. Our history is full of dramas and heroes, like my father Park Chung hee who was the third President of South Korea and gave his best to the wealth of our country. We need to remember our history and our heroes and walk on their path.  My citizen fellows the Presidential election will be held in  the 9th of May in our country. I hope  all my citizen fellows in age of voting will be participating in this poll and vote for Liberty Korea Party ( Saenuri) to renew their faith in my actions and the faith of our beloved country. I hope that I will have again the opportunity to serve my country and my dear Korean citizen fellows. Manse Korea !

I believe a lot of people would find this opinion, at least debatable. Park was accused of having pro-Japanese tendencies by some, but it is widely agreed that Park is responsible for the beginning of a normalized relationship with Japan and today Japan is one of South Korea\'s top trading partners, surpassed only by the People\'s Republic of China and the United States.[33][34] He is often credited as being one of the major people responsible for bringing economic growth and development to South Korea[citation needed]. Park has been recognized and respected by many South Koreans as his country\'s most efficient leader, credited with making South Korea economically what it is today.[35] However, Park is also regarded as a highly repressive dictator who restricted personal freedoms and was isolated from the people.[36] At the very least, his actions put United States and South Korea foreign relations at risk, at least under Carter. Dissolving the constitution to allow him unopposed rule and a third term, blackmail, arresting, jailing and murdering opposition figures are well documented.[37] The new constitution President Park implemented after declaring the state of emergency in 1971, gave him the power to appoint one third of the members of the National Assembly and even outlawed criticism of the constitution and of the president.[38]

Why are you replying to an obvious troll with a long ass paragraph ?😂

Hey you people, first read all the comments in this comments section and then decide who is the troll here. Me, who understands the reasons behind Korean peoples reaction, or this 2fat, who generalizes the whole nation calling all Koreans petty and butthurt witch hunters.

If they read all my comments they will find that I didn\'t accuse all Koreans of being petty and butthurt. Just those that care about this manufactured controversy.

Uh.. yeah.. okay... \'\'They\'re mean as hell to each other over the pettiest of things. They\'re like birds, they see a weakness and then peck at it until they kill it or run it out of the nest.’’ Oh and \'\'You are absolutely right. Koreans are often petty and hypocritical.’’ Don’t even think about editing those comments lol😂

Wang, Park Geun Hye is not the President of South Korea, you can keep saying it all you want, but it will never be the truth. Also I can\'t wait till it\'s announced that Liberty Korea loses, because no sane South Korean would vote for them now.

I won\'t. In fact the actual Koreans here know a lot of them are petty and hypocritical. It\'s how they maintain social order without much government intervention. Everyone is terrified of being ostracized for being "different" or non conforming. Not a bad social structure a few hundred years ago but now it\'s very stifling and a lot of people are willing to do anything to escape it. Hence you have almost as many Korean diaspora as you do actual people still living in Korea. There are about 80 million Koreans worldwide and only 50 million still in country. 88% of Koreans polled say they would gladly immigrate to another country to escape the pressure cooker that has become their country.

I completely second that, Korea is called hell joseon for a reason...

This just proves to me that an awful lot of Koreans are just petty and huge drama queens. I know very few that have ever met a great-grand parent and obviously you aren\'t responsible for the accident of your birth. Several powerful families today in Korea are the offspring of Japanese "collaborators". This coming from a generation of people that done nothing but reap the benefits of sacrifices their ancestors made. Ridiculous.

There is a controversy for literally every little thing in Korea.

Okay. Imagine your country has gone through occupation period, where women and children were raped, people were enslaved and slaughtered. The foreign power tried to eradicate your language, culture and belittle your heritage. Then some celebrity/influential figure in your country, whose great-grandfather supported this oppressive power and this said influential figure spoke highly about their relative. Then when people, who lost their family and suffered the hellish occupation period, criticized him for speaking highly of someone who condoned, supported and even participated the oppression of their people, and later when the scandal was blowing up, just tried to cover up and not address the issue openly and apologize, and only choose to apologize when things were getting tight for this influential figure, how would you feel? Of course it’s apparent that your people have never faced this kind of history so I advise you to stay quiet about this matter

Bullshit. It\'s easy to be an armchair quarterback two generations later. This controversy just proves that koreans will find anything they can to bring someone down. It\'s a petty and ridiculous controversy.

I think that over the top hating is unnecessary and people need to focus on things that are more important. But history is something they carry to this day, it’s not appropriate to advise them to forget it and quite frankly, it’s also very insensitive to do so. There are people who are still alive and suffered during this period, so \'\'two generations’’ is a false illusion you’re giving anyway. Again, if you and your people don’t have this kind of history then I think it’s best you didn’t interject with your insensitive opinion.

You are absolutely right. Koreans are often petty and hypocritical.

Every nation has petty and hypocritical people. Nice way of generalizing you little dickhead.

Sure we do. I\'m from Virginia the Capitol of the Confederacy that old wound is still festering. It\'s blight on the body politic in my country. It\'s an excuse for racism and classism and hatred and misplaced "pride". My fucking middle name is Lee. But I reject the bullshit heritage that "my people" try to ram down my throat. You can choose to live in the here and now not the past. Korean love to play the victim but they\'ve become way to prosperous for that now it just sounds like hubris.

Hey you 13-year-old. Of course I know he is not guilty. But Kang Dong Won spoke very highly of his great-grandfather, who was a traitor. Of course that would stir Korean peoples sentiments

Right I agree and I\'d be willing to bet a few of them don\'t give a shit about this issue at all. Only the petty, jealous of his success kind of people.

Everyone loves their family whatever they are

Since you clearly know exactly how Korean people feel and exactly how to handle the pain of colonization, then freedom war and the following humanitarian crisis

Even if you love your family, you still have to acknowledge their wrongdoings.

it\'s not so His grandfather must bear the consequences but He may have confessed his mistakes

Your arrogance is disgusting. I wrote a response to how flawed your argument is, but you\'re clearly just speaking from a place of arrogance. Believe it or not, Korea wasn\'t the first or last place to be occupied (and there are still active countries that are still in a similar situation they were, then. It\'s not like indigenous people aren\'t constantly going missing, with no one to find them as a government "OK\'s" their genocide or anything, but let\'s just be arrogant, am I right?) Nations faced a similar past, but your racism just gives you tunnel vision. It is one thing to disagree, but the fact that you have the gall to assume no other nation has faced the conditions of occupation and colonization just displays your lack of knowledge, and your bravado can\'t save ignorance. I can understand the people who were offended. Obviously, they would be offended, but there has to be some degree of an objective POV. Have fun arguing with yourself.

I don\'t know how they feel and neither to you. I do know how they behave and this controversy is ridiculous. They better get with the program and stop pretending like Japan is their worst enemy. They\'ve got a lot more shit to worry about now than what happened 70 years ago.

His great-grandfather, who was a traitor, died many years ago already. The reason this issue became a controversy was because Kang Dong Won publicly admired his relative and many Korean people thought it was insensitive and inappropriate thing to do. He didn’t apologize right away and tried to cover up this more (I blame YG ent. for this too) and it made people get more hurt. If he never in the first place spoke about his great-grandfather or apologized right away, this issue wouldn’t have blown up

I have an inkling how they feel like because my parents were children when the genocide of my people was conducted. It’s still fresh in my dad’s memory. Thanks for your input though

Do you see how contradicting you are? You call me arrogant? Take a good look at my first response to YOU. My other replies were for 2fat who was in turn arrogant to me and started generalizing Korean people and belittling their sentiments.

I looked this all up. Maybe you should too. He made remarks about his grandfather some time ago. Then some "report" came out on a news site that his grandfather\'s company came on on some obscure biographical Japanese dictionary. The newsite didn\'t even own up to publishing the piece they took it down. It\'s a fucking witch hunt plain and simple.

I’m well versed on this issue, otherwise I wouldn’t go into this length to defend my point of view. I have clearly stated many times that over the top hate is unnecessary as he himself didn’t do anything wrong, rather it was his relative and he shouldn’t be held accountable for relative’s wrongdoings. But I offered my simple explanation to the fact why Korean people reacted this way and instead you chose to shut me down, belittle my point of view and generalize an entire nation and on top of that allude that people getting hurt by decades old matter were being overly sensitive and silly. Now go make a conclusion about that.

"Of course it’s apparent that your people have never faced this kind of history so I advise you to stay quiet about this matter" is arrogant as fuck, and a huge assumption. But maybe 2fat\'s comment is hidden?

’’There’s a controversy for literally every little thing in Korea.’’ And this isn’t arrogant? Even Benedict Cumberbatch’s family had slaves and when he got asked about it, he absolutely condemned the actions of his relative and said that it was very wrong of him. He didn’t admire that relative unlike KDW did to his. That’s why people moved on and didn’t start criticizing Cumberbatch. Imagine if Cumberbatch had admired his relative? I bet people would have hated him even more

It sounds like a Koreaboo apology to me. Please see their point of view even if it is divisive and unnecessary. Besides, he\'s just an actor not a politician. Any Korean celebrity controversy should be taken with a grain of salt because these people are just entertainers, they don\'t make laws or effect the average Korean\'s life in any way. They\'re just all huge targets for hatred. You couldn\'t pay me enough money to stick my neck out like celebrities do in a place like Korea. Better to keep your head down an live below everyone\'s radar.

Lol. I can’t take you seriously. And since you chose to belittle my opinion, I choose to look down upon to your opinion too.

We don\'t know that KDW even understood or knew about this collaboration controversy. His remarks were made several years ago and someone dug up his grandfathers name in a Japanese publication. Clearly a witch hunt in my opinion and I\'m obviously not the only one that thinks so.

Frankly no I don\'t respect your opinion. I\'ve seen all of your "opinions" here recently and while they are always long and detailed they are also full of bullshit.

Just because I\'ve got an opinion on some other matter that you don’t agree with me, doesn’t make me wrong about this one. Thanks for proving how capable you are of logical fallacy and how low IQ and EQ you have :)

It doesn\'t require a high IQ to smell bullshit trolling.

Sad that he has to apologize for the actions of his great-grandfather\'s action, not even sure he even knew the man. People need to hold people accountable for their own actions.

I think the issue was more about the fact that he spoke admiringly of his great-grandfather (about his company), and when the topic of his great-grandfather being pro-Japanese occupation arose, his company was just being tactless and covering up things. If he from the beginning stood up and said that in no way he condones his relatives actions or didn’t talk about him at all in the first place, then there wouldn’t have been a public condemnation.

Quite a few of these "chaebol" companies were guilty of collaboration. If it\'s that big of a problem then break them all up. Do something politically about them, take their companies away and make them public. Oh that won\'t happen now will it? It\'s just easier to fuck with some actor that has zero influence other than selling movie tickets. It\'s petty and stupid.

Look, did I say that he needs to retire and go to a reflection for 10 years you fuckwit? I was only giving an explanation why some Korean people demanded a sincere apology from him. Mind you, a lot of people criticize these corporation families too, so don’t try to simplify this issue with false comparisons. I can very well understand their sentiments as my people went through a genocide and these people who were traitors and betrayed their own people, got hanged 2 years ago because only then justice was served. You think in that situation we should have let bygones be bygones?? You dumbass prick

Yeah I do. It\'s 2017. Not too many actual "collaborators" left alive I\'d venture to guess. Besides what defines a "collaborator"? Someone who profited from their Japanese relationship or someone that simply survived the occupation. Not every Korean or their family members were resistance fighters. Does just living through it count as collaboration. The goal is to survive honey. The goal is to have your children survive. Koreans are still here today because they are survivors not because they\'re conquerors. They\'ve lasted through Chinese domination, Japanese occupation and communist intervention, because in the end they did what it took to survive.

Hey, not everyone had to be freedom fighters. His great-grandfather apparently supported this foreign power, and provided necessities to the foreign military. If he did this only to save his life, it still makes him a traitor. You have no right to tell Korean people or any other people how they should or shouldn’t feel about this. Even till today, they LIVE with those scars

Why don\'t I have a right to tell someone they are being petty and arrogant. Most of the people complaining likely have no idea what their ancestors were doing during those times. I call bullshit when it see it. Doesn\'t matter we all share the planet. I can\'t be respectful of people\'s prejudices when they are clearly misplaced.

You’re clearly talking about a matter that doesn’t touch you any way. As I said, over the top hate is certainly wrong, but if you carefully read my comments, you wouldn’t be stubbornly arguing with me. And miss me with that arrogance bullshit, there is nothing arrogant in feeling hurt by a favorite actor who admired someone who supported foreign occupation, comfort women etc.

Look the dudes grandfather ran a mine during that time. I don\'t believe he knew that his grandfather was listed in some obscure Japanese book about cooperating with the Japanese. You\'re conflating things now. Like I said, EVERY Korean family compromised something during that time in order to survive. Or there offspring wouldn\'t be here now so entitled and butthurt over bullshit.

His family knew very well about their family history. His great-grandfathers name was actually in a register of Korean people who supported the Japanese occupation financially. Do you think that people over there are ’’hating’’ on their favorite top actor for no reason?

Do you know that we have been 500 years in slavery my country

Yeah I do. I think a lot of Koreans love to hate on anyone they can. They\'re mean as hell to each other over the pettiest of things. They\'re like birds, they see a weakness and then peck at it until they kill it or run it out of the nest.

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