NewJeans demands reinstatement of Min Hee Jin as ADOR CEO
K-pop girl group NewJeans demanded the reinstatement of Min Hee Jin as ADOR CEO.
In a now-deleted live broadcast on YouTube, the five-member girl group spoke out against the recent change in their agency and requested that HYBE reinstate its former CEO Min by Sept. 25.
Translated by the Korean Entertainment website Soompi, NewJeans said that the decision they made based on their meeting with company management was not "properly conveyed or communicated" with what they wanted.
“What we have to say today is ultimately directed at HYBE. We already had a meeting with company management and expressed our opinions, but based on the events that took place after the meeting, it doesn’t seem like what we wanted was properly conveyed or communicated," said Hyein.
Danielle, the Australian-South Korean member of the group, expressed her desire to continue working with Min, as Min's vision in creating music is "similar in so many ways."
"Even before debuting as NewJeans and through all of the time that we spent together with CEO Min Hee Jin, all of us felt that the music we wanted to make and the kind of world we wanted to build together—our vision—was similar in so many ways," she said, adding that she inspired them to put "sincere effort" in their works.
Danielle went on to say that CEO Min is "integral to NewJeans’ identity" and that she is "irreplaceable."
“CEO Min Hee Jin is not only the person that produces our music, but someone who makes NewJeans who we are. She discusses even the smallest details with us and explains them in ways that we can understand clearly. NewJeans has a distinct color and tone, and this was created with CEO Min Hee Jin. She is integral to NewJeans’ identity, and we all feel that she is irreplaceable.”
'I felt like [our new CEO] wasn’t worried about us'
Meanwhile, Hanni, the Vietnamese-Australian member of the group, shared an incident in which a manager from another HYBE group instructed a certain group to ignore Min even though the idols had already greeted her. However, their new CEO just brushed off the news.
She said, "I told our new CEO about it, but she told me that there was no proof and that it was too late to do something about it now. Seeing her try to move past it, I felt that we had lost our protector, and I felt like [our new CEO] wasn’t worried about us. And I had told her honestly about [the incident], but I felt like in an instant, I had become a liar."
She also emphasized how Min "fought" for them compared to the "new executive" who "just made excuses and said it was an incident they couldn’t do anything about."
This was echoed by Haerin, who said that she "personally" wants to keep working with people who helped her "grow mentally" and "feel the life force" within herself.
"But I can’t understand why external forces keep interfering and disturbing us. I don’t know if I need to understand it," she asked.
For Hyein, Min's dismissal without their knowledge made them "certain that they don’t respect" the group at all.
“We found out that CEO [Min Hee Jin] had been dismissed on the day of, through an article. It was so sudden and unexpected for all of the members that we had a very hard time, honestly. As artists under HYBE, that sort of unilateral announcement from the company made us certain that they don’t respect us at all. And within that confusing situation, we heard from our manager that our new CEO wanted to greet us.”
'Stop bothering our CEO'
NewJeans made it clear that they were not willing to "blindly" follow orders from HYBE.
They demanded to be treated better and expressed their disapproval of the expectation that Min act as an executive producer while involved in a legal dispute with the company. They felt that this situation was being used as a cover to help them continue working with the former CEO.
"From a human perspective, I’d like you to stop bothering our CEO Min Hee Jin. Honestly, she’s so pitiful, and this just makes HYBE look like an inhumane company. What would we learn from a company like this?" Danielle said, which was firmly lauded by Hyein.
Minji concluded the broadcast live, emphasizing that they want to return to the "original ADOR, where Min Hee Jin is CEO and where the management and production are combined."
"The reason we’re making this request is because this is the [only] way we can get along with HYBE, without fighting with the company. If our opinions have been properly conveyed, we hope that Chairman Bang and HYBE will make the wise decision to return ADOR to how it was by the 25th. Thank you for listening to us."
In April, a dispute emerged between HYBE and Min Hee Jin when the company filed a complaint against the former ADOR CEO, alleging a breach of trust in business.
Hybe alleged that Min had orchestrated a plan to take control of the subsidiary's management rights and to separate it from the holding company. In response, Min denied the claim and made additional statements against several of HYBE's groups.
Meanwhile, in May, BELIFT LAB, the agency of K-pop groups Enhypen and ILLIT, took legal action against Min, saying that it had filed a defamation suit against the latter for causing harm to the company and its affiliated artists through her “unilateral false claims.”
Months later, Min was removed from her position as CEO of subsidiary company ADOR labels and replaced by Kim Joo Young, a human resources expert.
According to ADOR, Min will remain at the company "as an internal director and continue overseeing the production of NewJeans." However, Min's representative said that the decision to dismiss her "was made unilaterally" without the latter's consent, although she was present at a board meeting specifically about this topic.
Min, the CEO of K-pop group NewJeans, made accusations of plagiarism against BELIFT LAB, claiming that they copied her group’s concept for its group, ILLIT.