BTS apologizes for nuclear blast T-shirt

The managers of hugely popular South Korean boy band BTS have issued an extensive apology after controversy erupted in the lucrative Japanese market over a T-shirt worn by one of the vocalists showing a nuclear blast.

In a 1,000-word statement released in Korean, English and Japanese, management firm Big Hit Entertainment repeatedly offered its 'sincerest apologies'.It sought to distance the septet from the row, saying it bore responsibility, and went on: 'Big Hit does not condone any activities of war or the use of atomic weapons.' 

Responding to further accusations the K-pop stars had used Nazi imagery, the company said it opposed all organizations 'oriented towards political extremism and totalitarian beliefs including Nazism'. Known for their boyish good looks, floppy haircuts and meticulously choreographed dance moves, BTS have become one of South Korea's best-known and most valuable musical exports.

They have sold 380,000 tickets for their current Japanese tour, and their singles sell hundreds of thousands of copies each.But Koreans bitterly resent Tokyo's brutal 1910-45 colonization of the peninsula, which came to an end with Japan's Second World War defeat after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.