K-Pop Star Blatantly Wears Swastika and QAnon Shirts, Forced to Apologize

K-pop star Chaeyoung Son has apologized after she faced backlash over her recent outfit choices. Days after the Twice rapper was spotted wearing a shirt with a swastika, and later a shirt with the QAnon logo, Chaeyoung on Tuesday formally apologized, promising in a statement on Instagram, "I will pay absolute attention in the future."

The controversy began when Chaeyoung, whose full name is Son Chae-young, was photographed wearing a graphic t-shirt with an image of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it. Chaeyoung shared the image on Instagram before quickly deleting it amid a barrage of criticism from fans condemning the shirt, with one person tweeting, "it is a well known HATE SYMBOL and to see her so casually walking around in it is extremely disheartening." Amid the backlash, the singer returned to social media Tuesday to issue a formal apology.

"I sincerely apologize regarding the Instagram post," the 23-year-old wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "I didn't correctly recognize the meaning of the tilted swastika in the t-shirt I wore...I will pay absolute attention in the future to prevent any situation similar from happening again."

JYP Entertainment, the management company Twice is signed to, also addressed the issue. In a similarly worded statement, the company said, "We sincerely apologize for not correctly recognizing the meaning of the tilted swastika in the t-shirt. We deeply apologize for not thoroughly reviewing it from the label side."

Chaeyoung, however, has not yet addressed another controversial outfit choice she made. As Twice appeared on Music Core, a popular Korean music show, to promote their new single "Set Me Free," viewers noticed that she appeared to be wearing a shirt referencing QAnon. The shirt featured a large Q on the front with a US flag pattern and the words "we go all" underneath it, the second half of the slogan for the far-right political movement. Representatives for Twice did not respond to BuzzFeed's request for comment about the QAnon T-shirt.

Chaeyoung is one of the nine members who comprise Twice, the K-pop girl group. The group also features Jihyo, Jeongyeon, Momo, Tzuyu, Sana, Dahyun, Nayeon, and Mina. TWICE recently released its 12th extended play "Ready To Be," which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Son has 8.6 million followers on Instagram as of Tuesday.