Min Hee Jin Names ILLIT’s Plagiarism Of NewJeans As Reason For Her Feud With HYBE
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.
It was previously reported that HYBE and ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin are currently in the midst of a power struggle. Min Hee Jin had allegedly been trying to usurp management rights to ADOR from HYBE, leading to HYBE launching an audit against her and the current board of management.
Although there have been many reports about the issue, Korean outlet Hankyung released an exclusive scoop regarding the mechanisms and motivations behind the feud. In an interview with Min Hee Jin on April 22, 2024, she claimed to have been afraid that NewJeans would be taken from her due to a new girl group’s debut under HYBE.
In March 2024, ILLIT debuted under BeLift Lab, another sublabel under HYBE. Even before they debuted, many fans had already been claiming that ILLIT’s concept and overall image were too similar to NewJeans. Some even went as far as claiming that ILLIT had plagiarized NewJeans.
HYBE’s Bang Si Hyuk took part in the production of ILLIT’s debut album. ILLIT’s imitation of NewJeans was not carried out by BeLift Lab alone as a label, but is something that concerns HYBE as well. As a leading company in K-Pop, HYBE has been blinded by profits, and are copying successful cultural content without any hesitation. Rather than showing something new, they are simply producing banality…
…And ADOR has never allowed anyone, be it HYBE, BeLift Lab, or other labels, to copy NewJeans’ output.
— ADOR/Min Hee Jin
Prior to the audit, Min Hee Jin and other internal management board members for ADOR had already sent their statements and requests to BeLift Lab continuously, but have not been able to receive responses. Just the previous week, ADOR had already set an official message to them, asking “for a statement regarding the violation of NewJeans’ brand value due to plagiarism.”
You can read more about instances where ILLIT was accused of plagiarizing NewJeans below.
“NewJeans 2.0?” — Korean Netizens React To HYBE New Girl Group ILLIT’s Concept Photos
