Home > National > Social Affairs

Celebrities share experiences in early voting for Korea's presidential election

Published: 30 May. 2025, 21:10 Updated: 01 Jun. 2025, 15:52

SHIN MIN-HEE
[email protected]

Actor Han Ye-ri posted this black-and-white photograph of herself to social media confirming that she'd voted. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

As early voting for Korea’s 21st presidential election took place on Thursday and Friday, a number of celebrities including BTS’s J-Hope, NMIXX’s Haewon, boy band KickFlip, actors Kim Go-eun and Han Ye-ri, singers Yoon Jong-shin, Lee Seung-hwan and Lee Chae-yeon and comedian Cho Sae-ho shared their experiences at the polls.

BTS's J-Hope posted this photograph of himself to social media confirming that he'd voted. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

J-Hope, wearing a black hat, mask and shirt, posted an image of himself next to a sign for the voting station in Oksu-dong of Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, on Thursday.

Celebrities made cautious efforts to adhere to the “no color, no gesture” rule — an unspoken but strict mandate that Korean celebrities not display political stances during election season.

Comedian Cho Sae-ho posted this photograph of himself to social media confirming that he'd voted. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

For example, Han posted a selfie while wearing black-and-white. Cho refrained from posing in his photograph and covered his face with a mask.

In inevitable cases, it seemed that the more, the merrier, was the answer to avoid backlash — as was the case for singer Lee Chae-yeon, who had a blue wrist brace on one arm and held a plastic container full of red cherry tomatoes with the other. Her caption read, “I couldn’t change my wrist brace, so I neutralized it with cherry tomatoes.”

Singer Lee Seung-hwan, on the other hand, proudly wore a blue hat and shirt in a photograph he posted to social media. The singer openly supported former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment last December, even performing at rallies.

Early voting for the 21st presidential election ended Friday with a final turnout of 34.74 percent.