Lee Min-jung shares throwback bikini selfies days after public dig from Ko Young-wook

Actress Lee Min-jung shared a set of throwback vacation photos on her social media on the 8th, re-posting content originally uploaded by a fan that showed her posing in a patterned brown bikini at a holiday destination. In the photos she appears relaxed and youthful, alternating between a casual hand-to-face pose and a V-sign, and the images drew immediate attention for how little seems to have changed about her appearance over the years.

The timing added a layer of context. Just days earlier, on the 4th, singer Ko Young-wook, formerly of the group Rula, had posted a series of remarks about Lee Min-jung on his own social media. Ko claimed he was the first to cast her off the street in Apgujeong when she was a high school student, noted that she had eventually appeared in one of his music videos, and wrapped his comments in a condescending observation about her now being a "middle-aged celebrity" absorbed in the entertainment world. He followed that with a remark questioning whether Lee Byung-hun looked happy in a recent family photo, leaving it open as either a genuine read or a joke at the couple's expense.

Lee Min-jung did not respond to any of it directly. On the 6th, two days after Ko's posts, she shared photos from a dress-fitting session, captioning them with a comment about how a dress tour is always interesting for women. The images showed her trying on multiple looks ahead of an appearance at the CJ Night in Celebration of Frieze Seoul event held at the Leeum Museum of Art in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd. She moved between an off-shoulder black dress and a halter-neck black dress, both of which she wore well.

Who Ko Young-wook is, and why that matters

Ko Young-wook's public profile carries significant weight that his framing of the remarks did not acknowledge. He is a convicted sex offender who served prison time, and his attempt to position himself as a gatekeeper of Lee Min-jung's career history landed poorly with many observers given that context. That he chose to comment on her marriage and her husband's demeanor in the same breath made the posts harder to read as harmless ribbing.

Lee Min-jung, born in 1982, made her debut in 1998 and has built a long career across film and television, with credits including the drama Boys Over Flowers and the currently airing KBS Drama and GTV series Let's Divorce. She married actor Lee Byung-hun in 2013; he is 12 years her senior. The two have a son and a daughter.

Her choice to keep posting normally, without comment on Ko's remarks, was itself the story this week.