Min Hee Jin Claims HYBE CEO Banned Her From Promoting NewJeans Because Of LE SSERAFIM
This article is part of our coverage of HYBE vs. ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. You can read more and view the entire timeline here.
ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin held a press conference on April 25, 2024. She touched on the accusations made towards her during her feud with HYBE. While discussing the process of how she created ADOR, she explained how she ended up leaving Source Music. Min was initially invited to join the company through a collaborative project to create HYBE’s first girl group, to be launched under Source Music. HYBE suddenly told her that they would be debuting a girl group centered around now LE SSERAFIM’s Chaewon and Sakura. This caused NewJeans’ debut to be delayed, and also angered Min Hee Jin so much that she requested for ADOR to be created so she could debut NewJeans as quick as possible. Min Hee Jin felt that HYBE had betrayed her, by promising both her and the members of NewJeans that they would be HYBE’s first girl group, only to create LE SSERAFIM instead.
Following that, Min Hee Jin made a damning statement that claimed HYBE’s CEO banned her from promoting NewJeans due to LE SSERAFIM.
Park Ji Won asked me not to promote NewJeans until LE SSERAFIM makes their debut. I asked why, and he said that we needed to make the public think that LE SSERAFIM is Min Hee Jin’s girl group. That we needed the public to be confused between the two. Do you think this makes sense? Why are they such thugs? I already took the girls in. I can’t give up on their debut. So what should I have done? Fight back? I just thought to myself, okay, fine, even if you guys try to create disturbances for me, I just have to do well with what I can. So I received a few boycotts. To stop me from promoting NewJeans.
— Min Hee Jin
Usually, before a group makes their debut, a bunch of teasers and media articles go up to promote the new group. NewJeans came out of no where with zero promotion, stunning the public. Min Hee Jin sheds light on the reason, accusing Park Ji Won, the CEO of HYBE, from banning her from promoting the group pre-debut for LE SSERAFIM’s benefit. This is as “Min Hee Jin’s girl group” had been used heavily to promote HYBE’s first girl group, a position that should have been NewJeans’. This later went to LE SSERAFIM due to HYBE’s plans. Park Ji Won’s alleged ploy was to promote LE SSERAFIM using Min Hee Jin’s name.
The accusations come at the peak of her feud with HYBE, who accused her of trying to steal management rights to ADOR.
