YouTuber Johnny Somali gets decked after disrespecting 'comfort women' statue

A controversial American YouTuber who faced backlash after kissing a statue of a girl symbolizing the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery in Korea was assaulted by a passerby during a live broadcast last Thursday.

The assault happened while Johnny Somali, whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, was livestreaming with his friends on a street in Seoul. 

The YouTuber has faced public scrutiny for streaming his offensive behavior in public while visiting Korea.

On Oct. 9, he uploaded a video of himself kissing the Statue of Peace in Itaewon in Yongsan District, central Seoul, and performing a lewd dance in front of the bronze monument of a girl representing the tens of thousands of young women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule over Korea. These wartime sexual slavery victims are euphemistically referred to as "comfort women."

In Thursday's footage, Ismael can be seen streaming with his smartphone alongside his companions when a man suddenly approaches and punches him in the face.

The man then grabbed Ismael’s smartphone, threw it far away and left the scene. Ismael and his companions shouted profanities at the assailant as they briefly followed him, but he got away.

Later in the broadcast, Ismael appeared with a bandage over his right eye.

The identity and the motive of the man who punched Ismael remain unknown. The video has since spread across online communities, with netizens responding with comments like, “A hero has appeared,” “Much appreciated,” “Captain Korea” and “He put a cocky YouTuber in his place.”

On Oct. 17, the YouTuber also uploaded a video of himself pouring instant noodles on a convenience store table after an employee stopped him from drinking alcohol in the store. Other antics have included playing explicit content on the subway or loudly playing North Korean music on buses.

While visiting Japan last year, Ismael was detained by the Japanese police after a series of antics, including yelling "Fukushima" to construction workers and playing music with the lyrics containing the words "atomic bomb" in public.

Ismael has approximately 20,000 YouTube subscribers as of Sunday.   

BY HAN YOUNG-HYE, KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]