Foreign members announcing withdrawal are ‘furious’, while agency JYP is ‘calm’

KG, a member of the multinational girl group VCHA, who are approaching their first debut anniversary, has filed a lawsuit against her agency JYP, saying ‘I will leave the team’. KG stated on her personal SNS that she had been ‘unfairly treated’ by a certain employee, and announced her decision to leave VCHA and “filed a lawsuit” to terminate her exclusive contract.
It appears that KG had already expressed her intention to withdraw in May and posted a similar statement on her personal SNS in the process of ‘demanding’terminating her contract. Also, KG drew attention in the article by citing the ‘heated investigation’, which could be a source of contention in the event of a legal dispute, as reasons for his withdrawal.

Specifically, he mentioned ‘promotion of eating disorders”, seemingly pointing out ‘weight management’ under the premise of an environment “unt of mental health”, and also brought up the unconfirmed ‘personal history’ of a third member other than his own.

He also mentioned the issue of settlement. While KG acknowledged the burden of “massive company debt” that was inevitable before and after his debut, he argued that “he barely received any compensation for the heavy workload and restrictions on his personal life”. The multinational girl group BiCho, who he declared he would ‘leave’,’ officially debuted in January.

Apart from filing a lawsuit to terminate his exclusive contract, KG also expressed his gratitude to the JYP members who are the ‘mother’ of BiCho. He said, “There were beautiful moments” and expressed his gratitude to the executive producer Park Jin-young and the company executives who trusted him.

Meanwhile, regarding the announcement of KG‘s withdrawal from the group, BiCho’s agency JYP Entertainment (JYP) confirmed that there was an exchange of opinions through KG‘s representative and “there were some differences of opinion” and showed a calm attitude that they would proceed according to procedure.

Specifically, JYP stated, “We have not received the content directly yet, so we are checking”, including KG’s lawsuit filing”, and “However, we have exchanged opinions on the situation through (KG‘s) representative and there were some differences of opinion. We will proceed according to future procedures.”

VCHA is a team formed last year through the survival audition show ‘A2K’, which was launched in collaboration between JYP and the influential American label Republic Records, and made their official debut in January.


Reporter Heo Min-nyeong mignon@donga.com