Ok Joo-hyun breaks silence on 2022 'Okjangpan' controversy, calls dropping complaint her biggest regret

Ok Joo-hyun is done staying quiet. On the 8th, the singer and musical actor posted a lengthy statement on SNS revisiting the 2022 controversy that attached her name to Okjangpan—a portmanteau mocking her alleged influence over casting.

"It took a long time to write this post," she opened, before laying out her account of events. In June 2022, fellow musical actor Kim Ho-young posted on SNS: "Asaripan is a thing of the past. Now it's Okjangpan." The timing was pointed. Ok Joo-hyun and her agency labelmate Lee Ji-hye had just been double-cast in the 10th anniversary production of the musical Elisabeth, while Kim So-hyun, who had appeared in the previous season, was left out. Production company EMK Musical Company denied any nepotism allegations.

Ok Joo-hyun filed a defamation complaint against Kim Ho-young. She later withdrew it after receiving explanations from his side that the post was not directed at her and was promotional content for Jangpan. She now calls that withdrawal her single biggest regret. "I ultimately did not receive an apology. There was no method other than filing a complaint," she wrote.

Her frustration is clear. "If that remark was not really directed at me, why did so many people think of me, and why has the damage and hurt caused by it never been explained publicly?" Four years of carrying a nickname you didn't ask for will do that.

"I hope my name is no longer consumed as mockery called 'Okjangpan,'" she wrote. "I want to be evaluated as an actor on stage going forward."