ILLIT’s Feud With NewJeans’ Hanni Escalates As Belift Lab Releases Furious Statement
Belift Lab responded to allegations claiming that ILLIT‘s manager disrespected NewJeans‘ Hanni.
On October 7, Belift Lab responded to a previous report in which the parents of NewJeans members exposed HYBE for harassing and then allegedly covering up their mistreatment of Hanni.
In a statement, Belift Lab reacted to the allegations. The full statement is translated below.
Hello, this is Belift Lab.
We are revealing our stance on Ilgan Sports’ article that was published on October 7. We are asking that they stop making these allegations, including ridiculous plagiarism accusations, that there is no evidence of ever occurring.
ILLIT’s manager, Koo Sung Won, has never instructed the members to ignore NewJeans. ILLIT members also have never ignored the NewJeans member.
This is proven through an investigation that was held on June 13 at the behest of NewJeans’ parents. The groups were only ever in the same space on May 27 for 5 minutes and we have footage of ILLIT members bowing to the NewJeans member 90 degrees.
On August 14, when we reviewed the video with former CEO Min Hee Jin’s team, they claimed that the lack of greetings occurred after that scene, suggesting there might be another video. However, according to the security company, this claim is problematic because the video retention period of 30 days had already expired, making it impossible to secure any additional footage. The former CEO’s side alleges that HYBE intentionally deleted the video. Our protocol staff always uses respectful language and titles when interacting with artists, so the very notion that they would say “ignore” is not consistent with objective facts. While they claim that “the video where they said ‘ignore’ was deleted,” this assertion cannot hold since the CCTV does not record audio. From the moment this issue was raised, we have emphasized the importance of behaving courteously towards artists from other labels, and we have sincerely committed to the investigation. However, despite providing all requested explanations, new claims that cannot be substantiated are being introduced, raising suspicions about whether there are ulterior motives behind this, especially now that this unverified matter is being discussed in a national assembly audit. To protect our staff members, who are inherently in a weaker position compared to famous artists, we have refrained from commenting on this issue. Nevertheless, as attempts continue to solidify false narratives as truth, the affected staff member is experiencing extreme unfairness and mental distress. By bringing an issue that should remain in the goodwill domain of personnel matters between labels into the public arena, it is the vulnerable protocol staff member who is truly suffering. Following the raising of this issue, we have already sent two official responses and positions to ADOR in August and September. Despite our demands for the allegations to stop, a member of NewJeans mentioned this matter in a live event, leading us to request an apology from that member and the ADOR label, but we have yet to receive a response. We clearly state that if this issue continues to harm the honor of our company, the artists, and the staff, we will explore all possible means to address it.
— Belift Lab
It is worth noting that Belift Lab’s alleged plagiarism is well-documented. You can read more about them in the link below.
