On December 5 episode of E Channel X Channel S' television show 'Diva Sisters', Mina made a guest appearance.
While Mina and the hosts spoke together, they thought back to the time when things were extra difficult in the industry, especially for a female star.
Mina said, "I was really hated back in the day. Everybody just assumed that I was this star who woke up to fame one day only because of the '2002 FIFA World Cup'. It might be somewhat true about me getting my name out there as the '2002 FIFA World Cup goddess', but my songs like 'Pick Up the Phone' did well too."
She continued, "Back then, I loved performing at the military base. Whenever I was there, soldiers would scream at the top of their lungs. I loved that, because I wasn't as welcomed at other places. It was so fun."
"One day, we held a special event at one military base. It was a first-come-first-served handshake event. Everything went smoothly at first, but all of a sudden, tens of soldiers suddenly came up on stage all at once and surrounded me. Then, one of them touched my breasts. Surprised, the military police and my manager ran up to the stage and stopped them."
"Following that incident, when the military was trying to decide whether to lock the wrongdoer up in the guardhouse, I went up to them and specifically asked for favorable arrangements, since he was young and all."
"But later, I found out that the whole thing was plotted. Basically, what that one soldier had done wasn't something done on impulse, he had carefully planned the scene with the other soldiers in advance. That shocked me a lot. I was very hurt by the incident."
Mina's story made the hosts sigh and go, "Oh, no... You must've had a rough time. But yeah... Things like that happened much more frequently back then."
(SBS Star)