NewJeans’ agency ADOR made its first official move regarding the girl group’s ultimatum, uploading a post on social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We ask Belift Lab to show respect toward Hanni and not disregard her plea,” ADOR said in the post on Wednesday as the agency’s first official action regarding NewJeans’ demands made two weeks ago.
The statement regarded the incident that occurred on May 27, when the manager of girl group ILLIT told the artist to “ignore” Hanni — as revealed on Sept. 11 through the five members’ YouTube livestream. The NewJeans member disclosed the incident as proof that the girl group was being “subtly bullied” by HYBE’s constituents and that they were not protected by their agency, ADOR.
Belift Lab is the agency of ILLIT and a subsidiary of HYBE.
NewJeans sent a formal letter to ADOR on Nov. 13 demanding that the agency abide by a list of demands within 14 days or the five members will terminate their contracts with the agency. ADOR received the letter the next day, giving the agency until Thursday to make the changes in order to keep NewJeans.
ADOR clearly stated in the very first sentence of the X post that it came as “part of the artists’ demands.”
“ADOR has been keeping a prudent attitude to prevent the continued controversy from causing an unnecessary scandal for our artists,” read the X post. “Belift Lab’s claims are completely different from Hanni’s. Hanni clearly remembers that a Belift Lab staff member said to ‘ignore’ or ‘ignore and walk by’ her.”
The post continued, “ADOR and ADOR’s constituents have sincere faith in the artist’s words and we truly sympathize with the damage caused to Hanni.”
“We ask that Belift Lab show sincerity so as not to continue an unnecessary scandal for ADOR’s artists,” ADOR said.
ADOR will now have one day to decide whether it will abide by NewJeans’ demands.
BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]
