SM Entertainment has faced significant criticism from fans following the announcement of Seunghan's return to RIIZE.

Just four days ago, SM Entertainment announced that Seunghan would resume activities with RIIZE after 10 months of hiatus following the controversy involving his private life. While the majority of international fans warmly welcomed Seunghan, many Korean fans were furious with the announcement. Many went as far as to send funeral wreaths demanding Seunghan's permanent exit from the group and began boycotting RIIZE altogether.

Due to the growing anger of fans and the increasing number of canceled merchandise orders, SM Entertainment announced Seunghan's permanent departure from RIIZE, just two days after his return announcement. 

This latest controversy has taken a significant toll on both RIIZE and SM Entertainment with growing criticism against the company for handling the situation poorly.

Korean netizens gathered in an online community to discuss the latest controversy surrounding RIIZE and Seunghan, pointing out SM Entertainment's lack of professionalism.

One netizen explained, "This is such a poor way to treat RIIZE's fandom and the now-former member they tried to return to the group. (Starting with the company's announcement of the member's indefinite hiatus, they began erasing traces of the member within the group, treating him as if he no longer existed. Then it took 10 months to officially announce his return but then the company was sending hints that the member would depart from the group. The public is saying things would be better if the company just avoided going back and forth. The company should have quietly handled the member's departure internally. Had they done that, there wouldn't have been any need to bring up former member Seunghan's past personal life again, nor would the fandom have been hurt by all the public announcements. As a result, the former member was forced to write two long handwritten letters in just two days."

The netizen criticized, "SM was established 30 years ago, known as the powerhouse for idols, but the way they handled this is like that of a new company established in 2024."

Other netizens joined the community to share their thoughts on this latest controversy and also criticized the company's incompetence.

They commented: 

"SM really messed up with how they handled this. If they were going to bring him back, they should have done it quickly, and if he was going to leave, they should have let him go sooner. Instead, they dragged things out, and brought him back, and now he’s facing criticism that could have been avoided. They pushed the members forward, but this is something that wouldn’t have happened if SM had handled it properly."

"This has already caused a huge uproar overseas, and honestly, if they want to launch Hong Seunghan as a solo artist, they should take advantage of the current sentiment. Even though it's mostly international fans, it’s hard to build up this much of a buzz overseas. If I were in charge, I’d open Hong Seunghan’s Instagram tomorrow."

"You guys were the ones who sent a funeral wreath to a living person, so why blame the company for that? Seriously."

"People who are picking fights with those expressing sympathy, saying it’s karma or whatever—sigh... If you got a single funeral wreath with your name on it, you’d be shaking, but he, born in 2003, got tons of them with his name on it. Are you seriously saying people can’t even feel sorry for him? The people expressing sympathy aren’t asking for him to come back."

"It’s really cruel to do this to them."

"I just feel like the fans are the only ones suffering."

"I was honestly shocked by how badly this was handled."

"There are companies out there who stick with actual criminals, and entertainment companies are just... ugh."

"They should have let him go as soon as the scandal broke. If it was serious enough to halt activities for 78 days, it was serious back then too. Now, 10 months have passed since they erased all traces of him—who’s going to welcome him back? "

"This was honestly one of the biggest screw-ups ever. They should have quietly erased his traces or supported him in solo activities behind the scenes. What is this?"

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