L'Occitane Korea apologized after its employee posted a topless photo of boy band Seventeen's Mingyu.

"We sincerely apologize for the recent incident involving the unauthorized release of photos from the L'Occitane Asia Ambassador campaign," said L'Occitane Korea on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.

"We fully understand that there is no excuse for this breach and fully accept responsibility for what has occurred."


L'Occitane Korea also apologized to the artist and all the fans "for causing distress," and said "the employee involved has been completely removed from all duties, and immediate disciplinary action has been enforced."

The French luxury house came under fire when the company's employee shared dozens of private photos of Mingyu from the brand's photo shoot on their personal Instagram account.

A topless photo was included in the compilation, sparking fierce backlash from fans.

Mingyu was appointed as the L'Occitane Asia Ambassador in May.

Seventeen is a 13-member boy band that debuted under Pledis Entertainment in 2015. It recently performed at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama on May 25 and 26, one of the biggest performance venues in Japan and can hold up to 70,000 concertgoers.

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]