How we restored the K-pop community’s faith in journalism

As an international news company, we try to be a website of record for many things: major conflicts, the globally shifting middle class and, of course, Korean pop.

But we're not always perfect, as a recent incident demonstrates. The original version of a wire story from South Korea's Yonhap News Agency published on our site last week caught the attention of K-pop fans for erroneously suggesting that South Korean pop star Rain and other celebrity soldiers were sentenced to military prison after being caught on camera misbehaving.

Vigilant Rain fans were not happy with the slip — and they let us know:

Korean pop, for those with an unworldly cultural palette, is a global phenom. K-pop has been called "South Korea's Greatest Export," while Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the third most popular single in 2012 in terms of global digital sales.

GlobalPost received dozens of comments as well as tweets and emails from concerned K-pop fans about the story — in fact, it was one of our most-commented stories in recent weeks. Of course, we regret any errors in news stories appearing on our site, and looked into the matter promptly.

Finding incorrect information, we edited the story and issued a correction, as is our policy.

We soon found that K-pop fans can be as velvet-gloved with their praise as they are heavy-handed with their critiques — a bit of a surprise, considering their initial vehemence:

We're glad we set the story straight with the help of our readers.

And for the record, we do not have a secret agenda against one of the world's most influential entertainers — no matter what Stephen Colbert would have you believe.