An unusual scene was produced on the 31st (local time) in the briefing room of the White House in the United States, which is famous for frequent and serious questions and answers.
World-class K-pop star BTS (BTS), President Joe Biden to discuss 'Anti-Asian Hate Crime Response Plan' on the last day of 'AANHPI Heritage Month' in the US It was a 'surprise visit' to the press room before the interview.
When BTS opened the press room door with spokesperson Carine Jean-Pierre and appeared with a slightly tense expression, the reporters did not react much and the atmosphere was calmer than expected.
However, as the BTS members started speaking one by one, most reporters all at once took out their cell phones and took pictures or videotaped them.
Some reporters immediately posted it on their social media.
Photographers and camera reporters placed behind the briefing room shouted "Phone Down, Phone Down" one after another.
It was an urgent appeal to put down the cell phone as it interfered with the filming composition.
However, many of them showed great interest in the world-famous stars who continued to bring their cell phones to the press room, ignoring these demands.
On that day, the press room was literally full with no space to walk.
After most of the reserved seats were filled, about 100 reporters from Korea and Japan as well as other foreign media stood around the seats and waited for BTS to enter.
There are 49 seats in the White House briefing room, 7 rows by 7 rows.
Considering that reporters usually gather around this seat, it means that about three times as many reporters are gathered on this day.
A White House official asked for cooperation that the entrance and exit aisles should always be left empty for people to pass through, but it was not properly observed due to the large number of people.
American reporters, who regularly enter the White House, looked surprised at the dense appearance as they entered the press room, and a Japanese reporter said, "BTS is also interested in Japan, so I came to the scene directly."
An American reporter, who has been in and out of the White House since the Trump administration, said he doesn't remember gathering so many reporters in the briefing room during the Biden administration.
Former President Trump often visited the briefing room and had close-to-controversial questions and answers with reporters for nearly two hours at long lengths, so the reporters often made a fuss.
A videographer said, "I've never seen a briefing room so crowded."
American reporters were also witnessed taking 360-degree videos of the entire briefing room as if this scenery was strange.
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It was not only the press room that was unusual.
The White House broadcasts the briefing live on its YouTube channel, and the number of concurrent users exceeded 300,000 at one time as BTS fans flocked to it.
At around 2:20 pm, before the start of the briefing, the number exceeded 90,000, and by 30 minutes, the predicted time, it surpassed 170,000.
Eventually, at 2:37 pm, when BTS came to the briefing room later than originally scheduled and started speaking, the number of simultaneous users increased exponentially, exceeding 300,000.
"I didn't expect so many people to log in," said a White House reporter with a surprising expression.
He even said that he did not know whether he broke the record of simultaneous access to the White House.
After the BTS order was over, when Brian Diss, chairman of the National Economic Committee (NEC) of the White House, which was the next briefing turn, grabbed the microphone, reporters started to leave one by one, and the number of simultaneous users decreased sharply.
Chairman This smiled shyly and joked, "I have to go home today and tell the kids that BTS did the opening for my briefing."
A reporter saw the scenery of the press room before BTS appeared and joked, "Did Chairman Dis become this popular?"
Even outside the White House, more than 200 BTS fans gathered and enthusiastically cheered for BTS with an iron fence in between.
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He was also seen wearing a purple mask and bandana, the symbol of BTS.
Fan Khazar Bergei said, "BTS addresses racism through music every day and helps to actively deliver a message. It's something other artists don't do well. BTS is sending a message of love and unity through music." said.
Anu Bisworth said, "It's amazing that we can all be together through music," and "BTS brings more love to all of us."
BTS in a neat black suit stayed in the briefing room for about 6 minutes.
Except for the leader RM, the remaining 6 members took turns in Korean one by one to emphasize the eradication of hate crimes in Asia.
Of course, English translation followed after the remarks.
An official from Hive, BTS' agency, said, "I'm Korean, so I spoke in Korean." "There was no request from the White House."
After the prepared remarks were finished, BTS left the briefing room without answering questions such as 'Why did you come to the White House' and 'Why are you wearing a black suit?'
It is known that BTS toured the White House before meeting President Biden and filmed a related video.
(Photo = Yonhap News)