BTS’s V, ATEEZ’s Hongjoong And SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu All Descended From The Same Prince

Did you know? BTS‘s V, ATEEZ‘s Hongjoong, and SEVENTEEN‘s Mingyu are all descendants of the same ancient Korean prince.

Although Korea is peppered with people of the last name “Kim”, not all Kims are born the same. Each Kim belongs to a different Kim clan. In particular, Hongjoong, V and Mingyu belong to the Gwangsan Kim clan, a Korean clan with their headquarters (bon-gwan) located in Gwangsan, now known as Gwangju.

Members of the Gwangsan Kim clan are descendants of the third prince of King Sin Mu of Silla, Kim Heung Gwang. Although Kim Heung Gwang never made it to become the King, he still went on to produce a long line of scholars. For example, the clan produced neo-confucian scholars during the Joseon dynasty such as Kim Jang Saeng, Kim Jip and Kim Manjung, who was also a Chief Scholar. He famously wrote the novel, Gu-un Mong, The Cloud Dream of the Nine, the first Korean literature work to ever be translated into English back in 1922.

It was revealed that V was a descendant, by singer Paul Kim, who is also another descendant. Paul Kim had expressed his thanks towards V, who greeted him at an awards ceremony where the two realized they were related very very distantly due to the clan. Mingyu revealed his roots on Going Seventeen, while Hongjoong revealed his ancestry on a reality show on Mnet.

Not only that, other celebrities such as former After School‘s UEE and MAMAMOO‘s Solar are descendants as well. While we previously reported that actresses Lee Yu Bi and Lee Da In are descendants of royalty as well, their royal clan only consists of a few hundred known descendants while the Gwangsan Kim clan has over 900,000 known descendants to date.