Travel-Banned Johnny Somali Filmed With Rising Sun Flag, Declaring 'Japan Should Occupy Korea'

Footage of Jeon Ramsey waving a Rising Sun flag and asserting that Japan should occupy Korea surfaced online in July 2025, drawing immediate condemnation from Korean media and social users, according to a July 24, 2025 report by 아시아경제. The outlet described Ramsey, who streams on Kick under the handle Johnny Somali, as "travel-banned" at the time the clip circulated. He was not in South Korea when it appeared. Where he was physically located when the footage was captured is not specified in available reporting.

To place that moment in sequence: four months before it, on March 7, 2025, Ramsey had appeared at Seoul Central District Court wearing a MAGA hat and admitted to obstruction charges during the hearing, according to Korea JoongAng Daily's coverage from that date. Prosecutors were assembling the case that would eventually carry deepfake distribution as a second charge. He left court that day having entered the admission on record.

The Rising Sun flag clip landed while those proceedings were still unresolved. Korean media had been tracking Ramsey's conduct in the country since at least late 2024. Korea JoongAng Daily published a full timeline of his activities in Korea on November 29, 2024, cataloging the assault allegations, a police drug-use probe, and the arrests of Korean YouTubers who had physically confronted him. One of those individuals was referred to prosecutors as of November 28, 2024, and was later fined on April 29, 2025.

For the record, neither 아시아경제 nor any other outlet in this monitoring batch addressed whether Korean prosecutors sought to document the July 2025 flag incident for use in the sentencing phase.

Seoul Central District Court sentenced Ramsey on April 24, 2026, to six months with a hard labor designation. The News International reported on April 15, 2026, that he had "extended another apology" at sentencing, a statement entered before the additional apologies he would deliver at his June 11, 2026 appeal hearing. NewsCord, aggregating coverage as of April 17, 2026, counted at least 18 outlets reporting on the verdict. The Seoul Appellate Court rejected the appeal on June 25, 2026, upholding the sentence in full.

Two letters attributed to Ramsey and written from prison have since surfaced publicly, the second appearing on r/LivestreamFail on July 11, 2026. As of August 22, 2026, he remains incarcerated.

What happens next: the outcome of the October 2024 drug-use investigation referenced in Korea JoongAng Daily reporting has not been confirmed in any available source. Whether the July 2025 Rising Sun flag incident produced any formal documentation by Korean authorities has not been reported. The content of the second prison letter, and whether any third letter follows, remains unresolved.