The story
According to Know Your Meme, the earliest use of the term was in a conversation between Twitter users @RockStarHustle and @CUNTRY posted July 23, 2009. The term was added to Urban Dictionary later that year. The term was popularized in 2021 in the K-pop community, and in 2023 it was reported that it was replacing LOL and LMAO among young people on social media. However, the term is not derived from Korean.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.