Perfect Crown row explained: Why IU, Byeon Woo-seok’s hit K-drama face suspension | Korean News
It had all the ingredients for a successful Korean drama. Perfect Crown, starring IU and Byeon Woo-seok, aired on MBC in the first half of 2026 and drew some of the strongest ratings a Korean drama has seen this year. Its final episode, which aired on May 16, recorded a nationwide rating of 13.8 percent, marking a series high. Fans were invested, the cast was celebrated, and the show had clearly connected with a large audience. Then the controversy arrived, and it had nothing to do with the performances or the storyline. It had to do with a crown and a chant, and what both of those things meant to Korean viewers who knew their history. Within days of the backlash erupting, the director had issued a public apology, a pop-up store tied to the drama had been cut short, the script book publisher was revising disputed terminology, and the production was facing the possibility of having to return the government funding it had already received. For a show that had just finished on a …









