Park Jin-young Wears a See-Through Top to a National Assembly Audit and Says a Trademark Filing Was Not Normal

SEOUL — Park Jin-young, the singer and JYP Entertainment producer who co-chairs a presidential committee on popular culture, appeared Wednesday at a National Assembly audit in a see-through top, and told lawmakers a company filing for an overseas trademark on a government festival "was not a normal approach."

Park was called as a witness at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee's audit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Yeouido. The committee had asked him to answer allegations of preferential treatment, including that JYP Entertainment filed first for overseas rights to "FANOMENON," a music festival the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange is pursuing. He is co-chair of that committee.

The outfit traveled farther than the testimony. Photographs showed a sheer top under a gray jacket and gray trousers. Online comments reported by Chosun Biz included "A government audit is supposed to be transparent, but," "impressive," "wearing see-through to a government audit," and "as expected of Park Jin-Young." Others called the look too flashy for the chamber. It is not the first time his clothes have led the coverage. A vinyl-pants outfit drew the same split, criticized at the time as provocative and later filed as part of the persona.

On the trademark, Park said the filing came from haste, not a plan to keep the name. "Because we were trying so hard to do it well, worrying someone might steal the trademark, we ended up trying various methods," he said. "It was not a normal approach." He said the rights would not stay with the company. "There will be no situation where the trademark remains with JYP Entertainment."

Asked whether FANOMENON was built to promote the administration, he separated the project from the party that appointed him. "Even if someone above the president's boss came, if I think it isn't for Korea, I won't do it," he said. "I have never once thought of doing it for the president or for the Democratic Party."

The allegation the audit was called to hear is narrower than the quote. A private company connected to a committee co-chair filed abroad for a name the committee is using. Park's account is that the filing was a defensive scramble and will be undone. He did not, in the remarks reported from the hearing, say who approved the application, when it was lodged, or in which countries. The promise that JYP will not keep the mark is a statement of intent. A withdrawal, if it is filed, is the document that would make the promise true.

Park has moved between the company he built and a state committee that books the industry he works in. That is the conflict the sheer top did not create and did not answer. The photographs made the hearing a fashion item by Wednesday night. The sentence that matters for the audit is the one he used for the filing: it was not a normal approach, and the trademark will not remain with JYP. Lawmakers have the outfit. They do not yet have the withdrawal.