Seohyun and Taecyeon’s highly anticipated drama "The First Night with the Duke" became one of 2025’s biggest scandals when their production team destroyed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What started as an exciting comeback for the Girls’ Generation member turned into a nightmare that could have ended her career.
The shocking truth? KBS drama crew literally hammered nails into the 400-year-old Byeongsan Seowon, a priceless 17th-century Confucian academy that’s been protected by UNESCO since 2019. They drove five nails into wooden pillars just to hang prop lanterns, leaving permanent damage to irreplaceable cultural heritage.
An architect who witnessed the destruction tried to stop them, but the crew "reacted angrily and continued" damaging the historic site. The aftermath was devastating – three crew members now face criminal prosecution with up to 5 years in prison, all footage from the UNESCO site was completely discarded, and the production lost millions.
But here’s the twist nobody saw coming – despite Seohyun being injured on set and the massive international scandal, the drama actually succeeded! After months of avoiding the topic, Seohyun finally broke her silence with a defensive explanation that shocked fans. The show that everyone expected to flop completely actually broke KBS’s ratings curse and became a hit.
From UNESCO destruction to criminal charges to an impossible comeback, this scandal has everything. The Korean government even created new filming guidelines because of this incident, and restoration of the damaged site won’t begin until 2026. Meanwhile, Seohyun and Taecyeon’s chemistry somehow made viewers forget about the international heritage destruction.
