Singer Jung Won-kwan, formerly of Firetruck, recalled the late NRG member Kim Hwan-seong and shared a heartbreaking memory.
On the 16th, a video titled "Singer Jung Won-kwan Episode 5 (finally thought we had a No. 1, 'G Cafe')" was released on the YouTube channel "Song Seung-hwan's Wonderful Life." That day, Song Seung-hwan recalled Jung Won-kwan's days as a producer, saying, "You also formed NRG and were the head of Cho PD's company, weren't you?"
Jung Won-kwan said, "At that time we had about 20 comedians signed. Popular comedians such as Jeon Seon-hee, Kim Jin-su, Ko Myung-hwan, Moon Chun-sik, and Son Heon-su were all at our company," and explained, "Before that I did NRG with Tae-hyung, and before that there was HamoHamo."
He confessed, "After finishing NRG's first album and promoting through the second album, he went independent," and added, "But after the first album ended, one of the members suddenly passed away." He was referring to the late Kim Hwan-seong.
Jung Won-kwan recalled, "It was sepsis. He caught a cold and while having a wisdom tooth removed it became infected, and suddenly he died within three days," and said, "After going through that, I thought, 'Ah, I need to rest,' so I stepped away from the entertainment business and rested for a while."
The late Kim Hwan-seong died on June 15, 2000. He was only 19 at the time of his death.
Born in 1981, he debuted in 1997 as an NRG member alongside Lee Sung-jin, Chun Myung-hoon, and Noh Yoo-min. The youngest in the group, he visited a hospital on June 6, 2000, complaining of a sore throat and cold symptoms. But three days later he suffered a sudden high fever and abdominal pain, experienced difficulty breathing, was moved to the intensive care unit, and ultimately died.
After his death, the cause was reported as an acute viral respiratory illness. At the time, aside from common colds, exceptional respiratory viral illnesses were not widely known. Moreover, the sudden death of 19-year-old idol Kim Hwan-seong, who had not yet reached adulthood, shocked fans.
[Photo] SNS, YouTube video capture
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