More than a month later Min Hee JinCEO of HYBE subsidiary ADOR has successfully fended off HYBE's attempt to fire her, another HYBE imprint has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the embattled executive and executive producer of NewJeans.
On Monday (July 15), Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Source Music, the Korean label under the HYBE Labels umbrella that is home to K-pop girl group LE SSERAFIM, sued Min for 500 million Korean won (about $361,000), accusing her of defamation and disrupting the operations of stemming from comments he made during two emotional press interviews he gave in April — thereby damaging the LE SSERAFIM project.
During these press interviews, Min claimed that her girl group project under Source, where she previously worked, was sidelined by HYBE after the company decided to focus its efforts on LE SSERAFIM, which specifically featured two of its members extremely popular girl group IZ* ONE. According to Min, this change in focus led her to move away from Source and found ADOR – a label that operates under Min's previously mentioned HYBE Labels umbrella Advertising sign “started with guaranteed autonomy” — to house her project, which eventually became NewJeans.
During the press conferences, ADOR's CEO also shared what he considered to be disparaging comments about several HYBE artists and Source Music's talent casting — telling reporters that future NewJeans member Minji was the only Source trainee who wanted to recruit and that gave the rest of the team. members thereof.
Source Music did not share a statement regarding the reported lawsuit. Advertising sign has reached out to HYBE to verify the lawsuit and provide more details.
While LE SSERAFIM's debut at Coachella in April made the girl group a hot topic in Korean media due to the pressure placed on K-pop artists, Min's next remarks turned up the heat even more. The backlash to her reviews was so harsh that it led NewJeans and its five members to disable comments on their Instagram pages in late June.
The new lawsuit marks the second time a subsidiary of HYBE has filed a lawsuit against the Ministry. In May, BELIFT LAB sued Min for defamation and obstruction of business over her comments that BELIFT's girl group ILLIT had plagiarized NewJeans, stating that the label “copied all the formulas we had with” the group.
The new lawsuit reportedly filed by Source is just the latest development in an ever-unfolding drama. On July 9, Min reportedly arrived at the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul for questioning after HYBE reported her to the authorities for breach of trust. Continuing her trend of engaging in direct interactions with the media (rather than issuing press releases and statements like HYBE), a smiling Min left the station after eight hours and, to the press gathered outside, called out HYBE's accusations “comedy”.
Amid the turmoil, NewJeans continued to release new music. In late June, the band released their first two singles aimed at the Japanese market: “Supernatural” (which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100) and B-side “Right Now” (which peaked at No. 47 on the same chart) before holding a fan meeting at the famous Tokyo Dome. Meanwhile, Source Music has confirmed that LE SSERAFIM are set to release new music at the end of August following the release of their February EP Comfortablywhich peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
