Banned Kick streamer Johnny Somali says he’ll return to the Comfort Women statue in South Korea after sparking controversy for kissing it earlier in his trip.
Johnny Somali, real name Ramsey Khalid Ismael, has been raising hell in South Korea ever since arriving in the country and has a laundry list of criminal allegations against him for numerous on-stream antics.
Early on in his trip, the streamer got the attention of the Korean parliament when he started kissing and being inappropriate with the Statue of Peace, also known as the Comfort Women statue.
The monument is meant to memorialize South Korean victims of sexual slavery by Japanese forces during World War II.
This resulted in numerous South Korean streamers targeting Somali and assaulting him, with one even placing a bounty for information about his whereabouts.
Since then, he’s been charged with Obstruction of business for causing chaos in a 7-Eleven, but there are many more allegations and possible repercussions awaiting him as he’s unable to leave the country.
Of note, he’s been accused of drug use, deepfaking an AI Korean girlfriend, broadcasting North Korean propaganda, and violating both anti-terrorism laws and the railway act after a bomb prank on the subway.
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Despite all this heat, Somali went live on TikTok on November 20 and warned that he would return to the Statue of Peace if he is banned on the platform.
Johnny Somali vows that if his TikTok gets banned, he will go back to the Comfort Women statue. @TheLegalMindset pic.twitter.com/BiJrfCzHzz
— Kpopdance101 (@BTSIDOL6) November 20, 2024
“I swear to God, if you ban me from TikTok, I’m going back to the statue tomorrow,” Ismael threatened. “If they ban me from TikTok, I’m going back.”
These remarks contradict his apology earlier in November when he claimed kissing the Comfort Women Statue was just a “mistake.”
“I’m a young person, I want to grow as a man. I made a mistake, and I think when you make a mistake in life, you need to own up to it. So, I apologize, and I will no longer talk about your statue or touch it ever again,” he claimed at the time.
Legal Mindset, a YouTube lawyer who has been following Somali’s antics, commented on the situation: “Johnny making more provocations on his TikTok – he cannot stop digging himself deeper.”
Somali has remained confident that he’ll be able to return to the United States and won’t face any jail time in Korea, but with so many pending charges and investigations into his streams, he could have quite the legal battle ahead of him.