The agency of singer-songwriter Henry, Monster Entertainment, said on Thursday it will take legal measures against malicious comments and threats against its artist.

“Although Henry has been continuously suffering from malicious comments and rumors, we’ve refrained from responding,” Monster Entertainment said. “But we’ve decided we can no longer endure comments that now even threaten his family, and will take legal measures.

“From now on, anyone who spreads some kind of distortion of facts, malicious rumors, threats or does any other sort of defamation will be sued. There will be no leniency.”

Henry debuted as a member of K-pop boy band Super Junior M in 2008. When anti-Chinese sentiment had been building among young Koreans, he got caught up in a controversy in March for his past actions, such as allegedly supporting the “One-China policy” on social media in 2018, as well as not correcting or speaking up when Chinese TV personalities were introducing some of Korea’s traditional cultures as though they were China's own. Henry is Canadian, but he’s born to a father from Hong Kong and a Taiwanese mother.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]