"Getting RIDICULOUS day by day"—Internet reacts to Min Hee-jin alleging HYBE of featuring NewJeans members in BTS' MV without permission

On July 23, 2024, a report from ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin caused a stir amidst fandoms as she alleged that HYBE featured NewJeans' Hanni and Minji in a BTS MV without permission. The post was originally published on the Korean anonymous online forum, TheQoo, that later went viral on X. It mentioned that Min Hee-jin previously mailed the authorities, expressing her disappointment.

For the unversed, Hanni and Minji featured as high school dancers in BTS' Permission To Dance music video (MV). The septet's English single was released in 2021. Reportedly, both Hanni and Minji were trainees under Source Music (under HYBE) back then.

However, Min Hee-jin alleged that HYBE did not seek her permission for the feature. Netizens argued about whether ADOR was a HYBE subsidiary label in 2021 and questioned why Source Music would ask for her consent. Others opined that they should avoid "dragging" the K-pop groups into corporate disputes.

Netizens discussed the chronology of HYBE's acquisition of ADOR and Hanni and Minji's traineeship under Source Music. Netizens also mentioned that featuring in a fellow K-pop group's MV from the same company provides added promotion before debuting.

"The funny thing here is that when they appeared in BTS's music video, they were actually trainees under Sourcemusic, not Ador," one X user wrote.

"So Min Hee Jin has officially lost it. Since she can’t defend herself, she will use her artists as a defensive mechanism," another X user added.

"Last we checked Hybe own 80%. She thinks she invested all her $ into producing Nj. She ain’t got that $," another X user commented.

Some expressed their irritation over HYBE and ADOR CEO's ongoing disagreement for months. They mentioned that since HYBE owns 80% of ADOR, they don't need her "permission."

"I don't understand what mjh's saying. It is a great benefit for trainee girls to appear in bts music video before their debut," one X user mentioned.

"Idk what to believe anymore. If the girls wanted it, it’s fine. I personally wouldn’t have featured in a famous group’s MV before becoming famous bc of my own talents. But we don’t know who did what and why," another X user wrote.

"Why would Hybe actually need to get permission from her to use people from their own subsidiary? Does she not realize she's been using their money all this time? This is getting so ridiculous I have to laugh," another X user added.

---

Min Hee-jin threatens HYBE with a lawsuit for disclosing her private chats in court during company conflict

On July 23, 2024, Dispatch reported on Min Hee-jin's alleged act of poaching Source Music trainees to debut as NewJeans of ADOR. The report claimed that the ADOR CEO took aside Minji, Hanni, Haerin, and Danielle from Source Music to create NewJeans. The ADOR CEO refuted all claims.

The report alleged the ADOR CEO intended to debut NewJeans in the third quarter of 2021. The group used the code name "Team N" in her chat screenshots. Furthermore, another trainee group, Team S (Le Sserafim), was scheduled for an early 2022 debut. However, Dispatch claimed that the debuting order was changed since Min Hee-jin delayed the entire process of NewJeans' debut.

Screenshots of the ADOR CEO's private chats as well as some footage of NewJeans members during their trainee phase were included in the report. On July 23, 2024, Min Hee-jin warned HYBE, Dispatch, and Source Music that she would take legal action against them for revealing her private chats publicly.

According to Korea Joong Daily, Min Hee-jin's law firm gave a statement where they stated that she handed over her laptop to the police "after wiping out all of its data."

"The content of the report — the record of internal meetings and personal KakaoTalk chats — cannot be accessed without the help of HYBE and Source Music. Min Hee-jin handed in her laptop that she had been using three years ago after wiping out all of its data, so we suspect that HYBE restored the data the personal conversations she had [with others]."

Her lawyers claimed that HYBE must have restored the laptop data via their company cloud servers, although HYBE refuted these claims.

---

For the unversed, in March-April 2024, HYBE accused Min Hee-jin of corporate espionage and taking full control of ADOR. They accused her of plotting with foreign investors to crash HYBE's stocks, allegedly conspiring with Dunamu & Naver executives to take over ADOR, and illegal sharing of business secrets.

Dunamu later stated that they had a meeting with the ADOR CEO where such a proposal was presented by her. However, since Dunamu is the third-largest shareholder of HYBE (5.6%), they informed HYBE about the meeting.