Agency drops NCT's Taeil following sexual crime allegations

Trigger warning: mentions of sexual offense

MANILA, Philippines — Korean singer Taeil has been dropped from the boy band NCT by agency SM Entertainment as the artist is involved in sexual crime investigation.

SM Entertainment released a statement on social media and to media outlets confirming that Taeil was accused of a criminal case of a sexual nature.

"In this regard, we recognized that the issue was very serious while grasping the facts, so we decided that we could no longer continue our team activities, and we discussed with Taeil and decided to withdraw him from the group," SM Entertainment said in Korean.

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— SMTOWN (@SMTOWNGLOBAL) August 28, 2024

The agency added that Taeil was cooperating in the investigation, that it would provide more information if there are developments, and apologized for any issues that may have arised in the process.

Taeil debuted with NCT in 2016 and was a member of the sub-group NCT 127, the latter now composed of Johnny, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Mark and Haechan (Taeyong and Winwin are currently inactive).

Last year Sungchan and Shotaro previously left NCT to join another boy band RIIZE while Lucas Wong officially left following a long hiatus from the group.

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