The mothers of NewJeans members have corrected the incorrect facts in Belift Lab's statement regarding the claim that a manager from another artist's team told them to “ignore” Hanni, and they have clarified the essence of the incident.
In an interview with Ilgan Sports on the afternoon of the 8th, the mothers of the NewJeans members stated, “Belift Lab issued a statement on the 7th, but there are too many incorrect facts in it. We requested CEO Kim Jooyoung of ADOR to make a statement addressing this issue as the head of ADOR. However, CEO Kim Jooyoung said, ‘Even if we issue a statement based on the explanations given by the parents and Hanni, it is likely that additional rebuttals will arise, and if that happens, we would have to rebut again, leading to a vicious cycle,’ and thus refused to release a statement,” they lamented.
One mother, Ms. A, stated, “We are currently unable to convey our position anywhere, even though a problem has arisen and we want to correct the facts. The company should be handling this role, but since they refused, we had no choice but to contact Ilgan Sports again.”
Earlier, on August 11th, during an emergency live broadcast, Hanni shocked viewers by revealing that while waiting in the hallway of HYBE’s building, she greeted another artist, but when she encountered them again, their manager told the artist to “ignore her.” In response to this, the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee has selected Kim Jooyoung, ADOR's CEO and HYBE’s Chief Human Resources Officer, as a witness for a hearing on “workplace bullying,” and Hanni has been chosen as a reference witness.
In an interview with Ilgan Sports on the 7th, the mothers of NewJeans members claimed that although the CCTV footage of Hanni greeting the other artist remained, the footage capturing the “ignore her” moment was deleted, and the ADOR management and HYBE have not taken appropriate measures to address this issue.
In response, HYBE issued a statement in BeliftLab’s name on the 7th, stating, “We strongly demand the immediate cessation of any attempts to slander the new artist with groundless allegations, following baseless plagiarism accusations and now unfounded greeting controversies. The manager of I-Land has never made a remark such as ‘ignore her’ toward a NewJeans member. When we reviewed the footage on August 14th with the former CEO Min Heejin’s side, the Min Heejin side claimed that there might be another video, as they believed the lack of greeting occurred after the scene in question.”
Ms. A stated, “BeliftLab claimed in their statement that this was an ‘issue of greeting etiquette, which is a matter of goodwill between labels,’ but this distorts the core issue. Hanni has never raised an issue regarding whether she greeted them or not. The issue is that the manager told the other artists to ignore her,” she said.
She added, “We have been trying to resolve this matter within the company. We have never publicly identified any specific label or artist. It is BeliftLab that has damaged the reputations of NewJeans and our families by issuing a statement containing falsehoods.”
Another mother, Ms. B, said, “CEO Kim Jooyoung said he was embarrassed that we gave an interview without consulting the company. But we have requested a resolution to this issue several times since it first occurred, and nothing was done, so we simply responded to the media’s request. Even this time, we asked CEO Kim Jooyoung to issue a statement from ADOR refuting BeliftLab’s lies, but he refused, citing concerns over conflicts between labels, so we agreed to the interview. If the company won’t fight for the truth against these lies, where else can we tell our story?” she asked.
She continued, “CEO Kim Jooyoung said he would notify all of HYBE, including the artists, about the culture of greetings and manners within the company to prevent such incidents in the future. But I don’t know how many times we need to repeat that we are not raising an issue about ‘greetings.’ We are raising an issue about the unfair treatment NewJeans received from HYBE.”
Ms. B revealed, “On June 13th, the parents sent an official email to ADOR’s board of directors to formally raise this issue. At that time, CEO Kim Jooyoung, who was then a director at ADOR, showed a lukewarm response, and we asked several times to be sent photos of BeliftLab’s managers to identify the individuals involved in the incident. However, there was no response.”
“They cited human rights concerns as the reason for not showing the photos, so we asked them to at least find the manager responsible on the date and time Hanni mentioned. But we never received a proper response.”
Ms. B explained, “When we checked the emails we sent about this issue, from June 13th to June 25th, July 10th, and July 20th, we had communicated and requested nearly every week until September.”
Another mother, Ms. C, pointed out, “Before August 14th, when the CCTV footage was reviewed, we had never seen any footage. Therefore, BeliftLab’s claim that Min Heejin’s side raised a new argument after viewing the footage is clearly a lie. Also, this wasn’t even a claim made by former CEO Min Heejin, but they continue to distort the facts by using the term ‘Min Heejin’s side.’”
She added, “From the beginning, we were told that only the person involved could check the CCTV, so Hanni and one manager went to view the footage. Why are they now claiming that ‘Min Heejin’s side’ saw it and changed their stance? Only Hanni and one manager saw the footage. But BeliftLab is now saying that Min Heejin’s side saw it and changed their argument. It’s terrifying how they keep changing their story and making things up.”
Ms. C emphasized, “This is why we are suspicious that HYBE or Belif Lab deleted the CCTV footage to cover up the facts.”
Another mother, Ms. D, said, “They keep claiming that it’s impossible to recover CCTV footage after 30 days, but we never even asked to see the CCTV in the first place. We didn’t even know if CCTV footage existed. We were relieved when they said they had secured the footage, but we still had concerns because there was no sound and you couldn’t read the lip movements.”
Ms. D continued, “It’s difficult to accept their explanation that they showed us unrelated footage two months after we raised the issue and claimed that the rest of the footage was deleted because the storage period expired. The company’s response shows a lack of will to resolve the issue, and communication was not transparent, as evidenced in the explanation email sent by CEO Kim Jooyoung.”
She concluded, “BeliftLab referred to the place that checked and deleted the CCTV as a ‘security company,’ making it seem like it was an external company. But the decision to review and delete the footage is clearly an issue within HYBE’s own organization. This attempt to distort even small details is not the right approach.”
“HYBE and BeliftLab continue to distort the essence of the issue and show no reflection for their attempts to cover it up and downplay the incident. We only want to ensure that our children do not face such problems again, but I don’t understand why they keep making things up that don’t exist.”
One mother stated, "We tried to correct the misinformation through the company, but since our requests were denied, we had no choice but to reach out again." The controversy began on August 11th during a NewJeans live broadcast, where Hanni revealed that she was told to greet another artist, but their manager told them to ignore her. This revelation caused a stir, eventually leading to the selection of ADOR CEO Kim Jooyoung as a witness in the National Assembly's inspection regarding workplace bullying, with Hanni named as a reference.
Despite Belif Lab releasing a statement denying the allegations on the 7th, the mothers remain firm, insisting that the essential footage proving the incident had been erased. One mother pointed out, "The security guard said that the video of Hanni greeting and then being ignored was deleted because they thought the greeting was enough and didn’t need to be preserved."
The mothers are now questioning the transparency of Belif Lab and HYBE's handling of the matter, raising concerns about the concealment of evidence and the lack of appropriate response from the company. They also clarified that their issue was never about the greeting itself, but about the disrespectful actions of the other artist's manager.
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