JTBC Denies Historical Distortion Controversy Surrounding K-Drama “Snowdrop”

JTBC has released their statement attempting to explain the reasoning behind their decision for Snowdrop‘s plot and how there are misunderstandings.

In a statement released to the media on December 21, JTBC shared that there are misunderstandings surrounding the plot of the story, as it is early in the broadcast and such misunderstandings will be cleared up in future episodes.

We would like to express our position regarding the controversy surrounding Snowdrop.

After the broadcast of Snowdrop, there has been continued controversy which has not died down due to the contents [of the K-Drama] differing from reality, so we would like to share our position.

First of all, the motive behind Snowdrop’s story, background, and major events is the presidential political situation during the military’s regime. Against this background, the K-Drama tells a hypothetical story where those with vested interests engage with the North Korean regime in order to maintain their power. Snowdrop is a work that shows the personal narrative of people who were sacrificed and used by others in power.

There is no spy leading the democratization movement in Snowdrop. The setting where the male and female leads would participate in, or lead the democratization movement did not appear in the first or second episodes and will not appear anywhere in the script after either.

Most of the misunderstandings that were pointed out by many people, such as historical distortion and disparaging of the democratization movement will be resolved through the drama’s future episodes as the show goes through its storyline. This will include the production team’s intentions of not repeating the era where individual freedoms and happiness were suppressed by unjust power.

It is a pity that we can’t reveal too much of the plot before the broadcast, but please keep an eye out for the future developments of the story.

In addition, JTBC plans to open a real-time chat service on the portal sites to listen to the various valuable opinions and voices of the viewers regarding our content.

The core values that JTBC pursues is freedom of content creation and independence in production. Based on these values, JTBC will do its best to show you good works.

— JTBC

Korean netizens had voiced their concerns after it was believed Snowdrop was using a tortured musician as the inspiration for one of the characters. At the time of writing, over 310,000 netizens have signed a petition to take Snowdrop off the airwaves. Many of the show’s sponsors have also withdrawn their support for the K-Drama following the backlash.