Ex-K-Pop Star Reveals Surprising Motivation Behind Starting Corn Farming

Kim Hyunjoong is facing fresh attention over his unexpected corn farming story.

The controversy began on “B-Grade Hearing RE:BOOT” on the B-Grade Studio YouTube channel. The SS501 member and actor revealed why he started farming.

He said he got an official fine for not using farmland he owned. Instead of paying up, he decided to farm it himself — despite not having a water supply.

“Back when I was very active, I had purchased a piece of land. It was designated as farmland, and since I wasn’t cultivating it, they said I had to pay a penalty.”
— Kim Hyunjoong

He continued:

“I worried about what would happen if news broke that I paid the fine, so I decided to just start farming instead. But the land didn’t have a water supply. When I called city hall, they told me there was nothing they could do. I found out that corn grows well even without much water, so I planted corn and held out for a year.”
— Kim Hyunjoong

Back in 2025, a tvN program explained the backstory: Kim Hyunjoong bought multiple plots during the 2007 Saemangeum land reclamation project. But the project stalled, forcing him to sell at a heavy loss of ₩400 million KRW (~$278,000 USD).

His remaining Icheon farmland was bought for ₩200 million KRW (~$139,000 USD) but dropped to ₩30 million KRW (~$20,800 USD) in 10 years. So he held onto it and ended up farming by necessity.