Min Hee-jin, former CEO of Adore and producer of group New Jeans, announced that she is leaving Adore and its parent company, Hive.

On the 20th, former CEO Min released an official statement, saying, “I am terminating the shareholder agreement I signed with Hive today and resigning from my position as an executive director of Adore.” She added, “I plan to hold Hive legally responsible for breach of the shareholder agreement. Additionally, I plan to take necessary legal action one by one against the numerous illegal acts committed by Hive and its associates.”

Min explained that the reason she made this decision was because she “judged that any further effort would be a waste of time.” In addition, Representative Min said, “Just as breathing is not enough to live, I do not want to ride the wave of this twisted organization and settle for money,” hinting at the fact that she is drawing up a new blueprint, saying, “I hope you will show a lot of interest in the new K-pop journey that will unfold in the future.”

Below is the full statement from former Representative Min Hee-jin.

Hello. This is Min Hee-jin.

I am resigning from my position as an inside director of Adore today.

I will also terminate the shareholder agreement with HYBE and hold HYBE legally responsible for breach of the shareholder agreement.

In addition, I will take necessary legal action one by one against the numerous illegal acts of HYBE and its associates.

Even in the midst of the hellish dispute with HYBE that started with HYBE’s illegal audit in April and has continued for over 7 months, I have done everything I could to keep the shareholder agreement and return Adore to its place before April. However, since Hive has not admitted its wrongdoings and shows no signs of changing, I have decided that further efforts would be a waste of time.

I hoped Hive would admit its wrongdoings on its own and have been working hard to protect New Jeans within the twisted Hive. That is why I sent internal whistleblowing emails twice in April.

However, rather than reflecting, Hive has committed the unprecedentedly foolish act of fabricating absurd false facts and displaying the shameful illegal audit to the public. They framed me, a minority shareholder and CEO, as an ‘usurpation of management rights’, and launched a witch hunt, making ignorant and absurd attacks that are hard to believe for a large corporation.

After many twists and turns, after a full 7 months, it has finally been revealed that my whistleblowing was a legitimate accusation based on clear facts, while Hive‘s ugly lies and hypocrisy are being revealed one after another.

In fact, Hive must have known from the beginning that the contents of the whistleblowing were all true and that it was a legitimate issue.

However, for these people who only care about their own interests and glory, the essence of ‘problem solving’ must have been a task they wanted to ignore more than anything else.

I didn’t expect them to repent, but I think it was a naive misjudgment to believe that they would have at least a minimal amount of conscience as human beings.

However, just as you can‘t live just because you’re breathing, I didn‘t want to piggyback on this twisted organization and settle down just for the money.

Until recently, HYBE has been using its subordinate labels to file unreasonable lawsuits, find fault, and play the media unfairly, while at the same time, they have continued their hypocritical and contradictory behavior of pushing forward a producing contract full of toxic clauses as if they were doing me an incredible favor.

They insisted on an R&R agreement, which is the essence of a delegation agreement, but they insisted on a nondisclosure agreement that included incomprehensible demands such as consent to forensic examination before the agreement, and they insisted on only a face-to-face meeting and repeated their incomprehensible claims that they could not provide R&R documents.

Even though they unilaterally fired me, they spread false information to the media that I had stepped down as CEO and taken over producing duties. It is no longer surprising that those who spread the information are so unscrupulous as to demand others to ‘keep it secret’.

The 24 years of atrocities committed by Hive will be recorded as an unprecedented event in the history of K-pop.

For the past seven months, I have fought with all my might, mentally, financially, and physically, to revive Adore, which was ruined by Hive’s serious violation of the shareholder agreement.

It means that I did not back down and made a great effort, even though it was a hellish fight that started with groundless violence by a group disguised as a large corporation.

Hive‘s moral decay has already reached its peak, so I am worried that the dirty media play will continue, but now even the public has read the pattern.

Nevertheless, I would not sit idly by and punish any forces or media that deliberately slander me, but I would like to inform you that I will punish them with the law.

This unprecedented incident is not over yet, but I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Bernie’s and many others who have tirelessly supported and cheered me on for nearly half a year.

Ironically, it is also a special fortune that I got to know the best people through my fight against the worst company.

Some people wonder why I am doing this. You may not understand why I endured it, but there must be a reason and meaning for people like me to exist in the world.

I hope you will show a lot of interest in the new K-pop journey that I will unfold in the future.

I will end this writing by saying a word to someone with a relieved heart.

“One person‘s malicious actions should not damage the ‘essence of business’. It was really bad.”


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com