Are birds government drones?

Most would chuckle at the old Internet meme but it appears one group in South Korea actually believes it and claims birds from the country's northerly neighbour are "equipped with cameras and surveillance technology".

What's more, the group allegedly claims singer-actress IU is a top spy and accuses her of "selling information to North Korea and China" who are "plotting to overthrow the South Korean government".

The claims were printed on a brochure shared by a netizen on the forum Ppomppu on April 18. Another post showed a flyer being left on car windscreens in a carpark.

Netizens were left bewildered by the allegations, which also accused the 29-year-old of funnelling funds into North Korea through her partnership with Woori Bank.

"IU's haters are insane," a comment read.

"It seems like this is a schizophrenic patient who has the power and funds to act, not a mere hater," a response read.

Many others also posited mental illness as a potential reason behind the claims.

"Seems like it's from the same group of psychopaths claiming IU is controlling the press," another response read.

One netizen joked: "You are the master of imagination."

Others were less amused, suggesting IU should hire a legal team to tackle these allegations.

"These far-right guys are not human, report them for being worse than the devil," a netizen commented on web portal Nate.

"This handout was pasted on car windscreens, so the car's black box and CCTV should be able to catch the culprit," another netizen suggested. "One billion per cent of the time, those spreading such claims are members of some religious group, but the government doesn't catch them."

While the allegations of IU being a North Korean spy seem far-fetched, it isn't the only controversy she has been embroiled in recently.

South Korean media Maeil Kyungjae reported on May 10 that a police report was filed against IU two days prior accusing her of plagiarism in six of her songs: Good Day, The Red Shoes, Pitiful, Boo, Bbibbi, and Celebrity.

The accuser claimed in the report: "These songs are very similar to the original works' melody and rhythm, and often use the same chords. Good Day and The Red Shoes, in particular, are very similar [to other songs], to the point that anyone who listens to them would find them similar."

While such reports are usually filed by the artists who created the original works, this one was filed by an anonymous person.

The law firm representing the accuser justified their involvement, saying: "For those who habitually infringe on copyrights through reproduction, performance, exhibition, and the spreading of plagiarised work for the undeniable purpose of profit, witnesses have the right to sue the accused."

The report also claimed that German band Nekta had previously alleged The Red Shoes plagiarised one of their songs when it was released in 2013. Reportedly, Nekta contacted IU's agency at the time, Loen Entertainment, but received no response.

IU's current agency Edam Entertainment released a statement on the same day as Maeil Kyungjae's article, stating it is aware of the "false claims of plagiarism and baseless rumours" circulating about IU online prior to the latest police report.

"We have proceeded to collect all forms of evidence related to accusations of plagiarism, false rumours, sexual harassment and defamation of character, invasion of privacy, et cetera," they wrote.

"Based on the collected evidence, we have submitted lawsuits against responsible parties through the agency's law firm."

However, they added that they have yet to receive "any form of official notice from investigators" about the aforementioned plagiarism report against IU.

"We are learning of the charges for the first time through the news reports from today," they continued. "We have no information regarding the charges filed, and we are in the midst of confirming the details related to the charges."

ALSO READ: New year, new power couple: Lee Jong-suk and IU are dating

drimac@asiaone.com

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.

For more original AsiaOne articles, visit here.