Former K-Pop Heartthrob Explains The Unexpected Reason He Took Up Corn Farming

In the latest episode of “B-Grade Hearing RE:BOOT” uploaded to B-Grade Studio‘s YouTube channel, SS501 member and actor Kim Hyunjoong appeared as a guest and addressed his past, seemingly random, farming endeavors.

When the show host brought up the topic, the K-Pop idol explained, “I received some kind of official notice saying I had to pay a fine to keep my plot of farm land unused.”

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

Concerned about the gossip a fine might spark, Kim Hyunjoong decided to put the land to its intended use… except it had no water supply. Still, he tried his best to make it work.

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

In fact, back in 2025, a tvN program shared more details about his attempt at farming. According to what was aired at the time, Kim Hyunjoong planted corn on his own 661㎡ plot of land in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Back in 2007, during the Saemangeum land reclamation project, he purchased several plots of land as investments. However, the project did not progress as expected, and he eventually sold the properties at a loss of ₩400 million KRW (about $278,000 USD). The Icheon land he is currently farming did not sell, leaving him no choice but to hold onto it for 10 years. Although he originally purchased it for ₩200 million KRW (about $139,000 USD), its value plummeted to ₩30.0 million KRW (about $20,800 USD) over the decade.

The idol ended up starting farming almost by accident, but it turned out to suit him surprisingly well. He shared his farming activities on YouTube, receiving positive responses from viewers, and currently has 1.22 million subscribers on the platform.