Band threatens to sue Time

Members of a popular Korean band, god, threatened Thursday to take legal action against Time magazine, regarding the cover story of the weekly's July 29 Asian edition.

The magazine published a cover story titled "Flying too high," about Seoul prosecutors' investigations of bribery scandals in the Korean entertainment industry. The group said the picture of the group used for the cover gave the impression that god (pronounced gee-oh-dee) is involved in the scandals.

According to the group, the magazine asked to interview the band for a story about the Asian music market, saying they wanted to introduce the quintet as one of Korea's pop icons.

"Not only the cover photo, but also the selected quotes of remarks made by the band members during the interview were problematic," a source from the group's management company, Sidus, said. "Taking legal action against the magazine is inevitable."

The band's manager, Park Pil-won, said: "If necessary, we will sue the magazine for libel on behalf of each god member. There are a large number of god fans in their 20s and 30s who have said they are willing to file a collective suit and organize a boycott of Time magazine."

A similar suit was filed in 1991 after another magazine, Newsweek, published a photo of Ewha Womans University students with an article titled "Slaves to money," about consumerism in South Korean society. A Korean court ordered the magazine to pay compensation to the three students in the picture.

by Kim Jung-soo