A court ruled in favor of Min Hee Jin in a dispute over a shareholder agreement, ordering HYBE to pay approximately ₩25.5 billion (around $17.6 million). In response, HYBE announced that it plans to challenge the decision through further legal procedures, including an appeal.
Amid the renewed attention surrounding the lawsuit, the issue of alleged similarities between NewJeans and ILLIT has once again become a hot topic. In its ruling, the court addressed the controversy, noting that BELIFT LAB did not submit sufficient additional evidence to conclusively prove that the two groups are distinct, adding that it is difficult to say the plagiarism debate has been fully resolved.
Following this statement, posts comparing the two groups quickly spread across online communities. Many netizens revisited side-by-side clips and images, arguing that the overall concepts, visual direction, styling, and even choreography appear strikingly alike. Some commenters claimed that the resemblance would be noticeable even to those unfamiliar with K-pop.
Online reactions included remarks such as, “Anyone with eyes can see how similar they are,” and “Even if you showed this to someone who doesn’t know either group, they’d say they look alike.” Others were more blunt, accusing ILLIT of directly copying NewJeans’ creative blueprint. Some critics argued that if the production team did not want plagiarism claims to surface, they should not have followed what they described as an existing concept framework so closely.
While opinions remain divided, the court’s acknowledgment that BELIFT LAB did not fully dispel the plagiarism concerns has reignited debate across Korean online platforms. The controversy continues to spark strong reactions, further intensifying scrutiny over creative originality within the K-pop industry.
Sources: Theqoo
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