Concerns Over Newjeans’s Comeback Amid HYBE & Min Hee-jin Conflict

Although HYBE and ADOR already made official statements on April 26th and May 2nd, respectively, there are still conflicting opinions on various issues, including Min Hee-jin’s allegation of taking over the management rights, the situation during the audit, Min Hee-jin’s annual salary and slave contracts, shamanic management, etc. 

Why are they fighting each other right before NewJeans’s comeback?

NewJeans will kick off their activities in 2024 starting with the double single release on May 24th. The girl group will release two singles, such as “How Sweet” and “Bubble Gum” in Korea, then “Supernatural” and “Right Now” in Japan on June 21st. In particular, NewJeans will collaborate with Japanese contemporary and pop artist Takashi Murakami. As such, K-pop fans are paying keen attention to how HYBE’s ongoing internal conflict will affect NewJeans’s comeback promotion as both sides are still intensely blaming each other.

ADOR complained about HYBE conducting a sudden audit without listening to their position internally and creating a stir right ahead of NewJeans’s comeback. They added, “HYBE claimed to have suggested not mentioning the artist in the dispute, but their decision to attack CEO Min Hee-jin and ADOR even when the issue could be solved quietly to prevent a negative effect on NewJeans’s brand value is such a misjudgment and it proves that they do not understand the management of labels at all”.

On the other hand, HYBE pointed out that it was CEO Min Hee-jin who attacked the company first by sending her email right ahead of NewJeans’s comeback, saying “CEO Min Hee-jin is threatening the company by taking the artist as her shield”, adding “HYBE has been accepting and compromising her repeated demands for years, but this time we realized that these demands are part of the process of her taking over the management rights. As a result, we had no choice but to conduct the audit. We asked her several times to not mention the artists at press conferences and interviews because we also value the artists.”

Why didn’t NewJeans debut as HYBE’s first girl group?

ADOR revealed that HYBE had made a promise with Min Hee-jin to debut her group as HYBE’s first girl group ever since the audition, mentioning NewJeans’s parents and ADOR executives as witnesses. They added, “In the end, HYBE did not keep their promise and recruited Sakura and Kim Chae-won then LE SSERAFIM became HYBE’s first girl group. At that time, CEO Min Hee-jin gave up her stake and requested the establishment of ADOR to debut NewJeans there. However, HYBE continued to lie by saying ‘NewJeans’s debut schedule was delayed regardless of HYBE’s intention due to the company’s division and contract transfer”.

In response, HYBE countered, “NewJeans failed to become HYBE’s first girl group not because HYBE broke the promise. CEO Min Hee-jin strongly insisted that she would debut the group in her separate label with her full responsibility and rights to create the team. HYBE respected her opinion and transferred the members to ADOR despite Source Music’s opposition”, adding “CEO Min Hee-jin even planned the debut process herself. During the interview in March 2020, she announced that the girl group would launch in the third quarter of 2022”.

Was HYBE’s recruitment of Sakura an obstacle to NewJeans’s debut?

Regarding the claim that HYBE did not promote NewJeans at the time of their debut, ADOR mentioned Sakura joining Source Music and the forming of LE SSERAFIM, saying “HYBE made an excuse about the confusion due to continuous promotions then asked CEO Min Hee-jin not to promote NewJeans before LE SSERAFIM’s debut but made people think LE SSERAFIM was Min Hee-jin’s girl group”.

In this regard, HYBE said, “The R&R discussion between Source Music and Min Hee-jin caused NewJeans’s debut to be postponed, so the girl group LE SSERAFIM prepared by Source Music ended up debuting first. If the two teams debuted continuously, there would not be enough time to promote them. In addition, when rumors of Sakura entering HYBE arose, information about NewJeans members might get exposed as Sakura would join Source Music. Therefore, we made the request to protect both teams’ values and shortened the gap to start promoting NewJeans as soon as possible”.

Min Hee-jin’s slave contract and HYBE’s competition ban

ADOR insisted that CEO Min Hee-jin did not deny the necessity of the competition, adding “However, the current shareholder contract is not reasonable”.

HYBE replied, saying “The competition ban under the shareholder contract must be kept confidential, but CEO Min Hee-jin revealed it at her press conference. It is not true that we force her to be tied with the company forever. If she sells the stake, she won’t be subject to the competition ban starting from November 2026 when her contract with the company expires. CEO Min Hee-jin said she was not interested in money, but the key issue that triggered the debate was the scale of compensation”.