Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

The conflict between the K-pop group NewJeans and their label ADOR (and therefore also HYBE) has reached a critical mass. On November 28, Hanni, Minji, Haerin, Danielle, and Hyein called a press conference to announce that they were officially leaving ADOR due to “mistreatment” and “manipulation” by the agency. According to the BBC, Hanni claimed the group was shunned within the company.

This is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between former NewJeans producer (and former ADOR CEO) Min Hee-Jin and HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk. From HYBE’s perspective, Min attempted to conduct a hostile takeover of ADOR. According to Min, NewJeans was plagiarized and disparaged in favor of other HYBE girl groups, and she was retaliated against for protecting her band’s interests. Hanni said NewJeans and her team “experienced mistreatment, not only towards us, but also towards our employees” and “intentional misunderstanding and manipulation in several areas”.

“This is not the type of work ethic we respect and do not want to be a part of, and continuing to work for a company that has no intention of protecting NewJeans would only harm us,” Hanni said. The band wants to fulfill their contractual obligations and then become independent with Min. This means they may no longer be allowed to call themselves NewJeans.

ADOR responded to the press conference. According to Soompi, the label does not believe that NewJeans has any reason to end its collaboration with the label. “The exclusive contracts between ADOR and the NewJeans members remain valid. Therefore, we expect them to continue their planned activities together with ADOR as before,” their statement said. “We requested several meetings with the artists, but these were not held. We hope that we can continue to open our hearts and have honest conversations with one another.”