🔗 [Exclusive] NewJeans Mothers Raise Suspicions of HYBE Concealing CCTV Footage… “They Said the Video of ‘Ignore Her’ Directed at Hanni Was Deleted” (Interview)

“Strangely enough, only the CCTV footage of Hanni greeting remains, and they said the footage of the problem—where she was told to ‘ignore her’—was conveniently deleted.”

With NewJeans member Hanni selected as a reference witness for the National Assembly audit regarding ‘idol bullying and workplace harassment,’ the mothers of NewJeans members have expressed skepticism and deep concern over HYBE’s poor investigation, including the concealment of CCTV footage.

On the 6th, mothers of multiple NewJeans members stated in an interview with Ilgan Sports that ADOR CEO Kim Ju-young claimed the CCTV footage related to Hanni’s bullying incident had disappeared. They voiced their anger, asking, “How can they say that only the video of Hanni greeting a member of another group remains, while the video that would have contained the problematic ‘ignore her’ remark has been deleted?”

Previously, during a NewJeans emergency live stream held on the 11th of last month, Hanni shocked the public by revealing that while waiting in the corridor of the HYBE building, she greeted another artist when she encountered them, but when she encountered that artist again, the manager next to them told the members to “ignore her.” In relation to this, the Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly adopted ADOR CEO and HYBE Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Kim Ju-young as a witness and Hanni as a reference witness for the audit regarding the issue of ‘workplace bullying.’

The mother of NewJeans member A explained, “Initially, it was around late May when Hanni’s mother first spoke to the other members’ mothers about this issue. She was extremely upset that she heard such a story from her child and said, ‘How on earth can something like this happen? I am worried about the future.’”

“May and June were a time when the issues between HYBE and former CEO Min Hee-jin were escalating. The ADOR board of directors had also completely changed at that time. Especially since it was a problem with another label, realistically, former CEO Min was isolated within the board and in a difficult situation to resolve it, yet she was protesting vehemently. Therefore, we protested to Kim Ju-young, who is HYBE’s Chief Human Resources Officer and the newly appointed Chair of the ADOR Board, as well as the changed ADOR board, regarding the facts and requested the prevention of recurrence. However, they only dragged their feet, and in the end, the answer came back that they found only the CCTV footage where the key problematic scene was deleted, so there is no evidence.”

Mother A conveyed the situation at the time, stating, “It has already been four months since the incident occurred. We raised the issue starting in June, but there was no sign of resolution, and only belatedly did they say they would check the CCTV. At first, checking the CCTV seemed dubious because CCTV cannot record audio.” She added, “I thought wouldn’t it be better to just meet the parties involved to resolve it? Why make things difficult by dragging out time? But since they said they wanted to check the CCTV, we told them to go ahead, but eventually, we received contact that the footage in question did not exist.”

Mother A said, “There wasn’t just one or two strange things. We raised this issue immediately after the incident occurred. There are records via email as well. Yet, we received an absurd answer that CCTV footage is automatically deleted after 30 days. So when we asked them to restore it, they replied that it is technically difficult to restore deleted footage.”

She continued, “But absurdly, it wasn’t that all the footage from the date of the incident was missing. They showed us only about 8 seconds of footage where Hanni and the other artist members were greeting each other, and then they said the absurd thing that the footage from the other time slot—where the artist and manager come out, which is the crucial part—was all deleted. Why would they keep only the scene that isn’t problematic? It was unpleasant, as if they were taking us for fools.”

Regarding this situation, the mother of NewJeans member B lamented, “So when we asked why only that scene was deleted, they said the person who deleted it had resigned, so they couldn’t know the reason. The security team made excuses blaming the superior who gave the work order and confirmation, and the superior blamed the person in charge saying they had resigned; it was a mess.”

Mother B said, “On the 23rd of last month, ADOR CEO Kim Ju-young asked to meet the NewJeans members alone, but we felt too anxious to send only the children, so the parents went along as well.” She added, “At that meeting, we raised objections regarding this issue once again.”

“CEO Kim Ju-young said, ‘Since there is no sound in the CCTV video, the security team might not have kept it because it was difficult to identify.’ So I said, ‘Even without sound, wouldn’t you know if you look at the atmosphere, the gestures at the time, and the situation?’ And when I said, ‘Shouldn’t you have just let us view the entire video of that date?’, she said they had looked through a whole month’s worth of video. That answer was also ridiculous, so I countered, ‘We told you the specific date clearly, so you just had to find that date; why look through other dates?’ I thought the answers coming back kept being strange.

So I asked for at least the data on what request was made by the ADOR board regarding this issue, and she said it might have been done by phone and it was difficult to pass on the work details. I said, ‘You call yourself a conglomerate, yet you don’t leave records of work requests? That can’t be possible.’ Then, on September 25, after the meeting, she sent the data via email. But I was flabbergasted when I saw the content.”

Mother A said, “She showed us the Slack content with the instructions, and the request process was strange. If this is a problem between subsidiary labels, isn’t it right for HYBE to maintain neutrality and investigate? Also, shouldn’t a department or person in charge related to workplace bullying at HYBE handle it? It’s a conglomerate. But it turned out they were looking for the relevant materials at Belift Lab.”

She continued, “Suspicions amplified as to why the ADOR board requested Belift Lab to find it, instead of ADOR requesting the security team directly or the workplace bullying department within HYBE making the request,” explaining, “Moreover, in the Slack content between Belift Lab and the security team, when the security guard said, ‘We found the scene where they greeted and passed by,’ there was a reply from Belift Lab saying, ‘That’s a relief.’ Saying ‘That’s a relief’—I couldn’t understand the intention behind showing us this content.”

Mother A sighed, “This is, so to speak, the same as asking the perpetrator to find the evidence video. In the end, they said the scene that would have contained the problematic ‘ignore her’ remark was deleted. When we asked them to do forensics to restore it, they said it wasn’t possible due to technical issues. I wondered how on earth we could trust this.”

Mother A conveyed the situation at the time, saying, “In the meeting on the 23rd, Hanni explained the situation to CEO Kim Ju-young, saying, ‘You said only the victim could verify it, so on the day I visited the security team to check the CCTV myself, the security guards couldn’t make eye contact with me and their hands were shaking.’ To this, CEO Kim Ju-young replied to Hanni in a way like, ‘Aren’t I looking you straight in the eye?’ which was very baffling.”

She continued to burst out in anger, “CEO Kim Ju-young had previously said to Hanni, ‘You should have told us quickly when something like this happened; the video has been deleted because a month has already passed.’ But Hanni definitely spoke up early, and we also raised the issue immediately. Despite that, getting such an answer back, we wondered if Hanni might think, ‘Is she saying I did something wrong?’ So the mothers also protested, ‘How would Hanni know there is such a regulation? And didn’t we raise the issue immediately after the incident occurred, before a month had passed?’”

“At the meeting on the 23rd, CEO Kim Ju-young suddenly shed tears while speaking in front of the NewJeans members. It was so baffling. To members who don’t have much social experience—and for a CEO, who isn’t even close to them yet, to show such an emotional attitude in a setting where various problems are being discussed—I felt like she was making the children feel guilty. Even though it was a meeting to talk about the harm we suffered. Actually, at that spot, one member cried along with her, saying, ‘Why are you making us into bad people?’ So the mothers said, ‘You are at the age to go to school; as parents, we are sorry to make you go through this.’”

Mother B was dumbfounded, stating, “During the meeting at the time, we raised the issue regarding the unauthorized leak of videos from the NewJeans members’ trainee days to an internet media outlet. Two days later, a reply came from CEO Kim Ju-young saying that she understands the (NewJeans) fans have filed a criminal complaint against that media outlet and Source Music, so waiting for those results could be a method to consider.”

“In the explanation email CEO Kim Ju-young sent us, it was written that while NewJeans members could file a civil lawsuit against the media outlet for infringement of portrait rights, we must consider the possibility that proceeding with such a process against a media company itself could be received negatively, and there is a concern that the chances of winning are not high if objective data on the leak fact is not secured. It also stated that ADOR sent an official letter to Source Music and the media outlet in August but received no reply.

It was written that since there is no criminal penalty clause for infringement of portrait rights, and there is a possibility it could be used against us if we sue Source Music and they receive a non-indictment decision (cleared of charges), we could consider waiting for the results since the fans have filed complaints against the media outlet and Source Music. I don’t know what she means by telling us to wait for the results because fans filed a complaint, while saying there is no criminal penalty clause. Yet, she says that even considering all this, if we want to proceed with a lawsuit, ADOR will provide the necessary resources for the NewJeans members to proceed with the lawsuit. I don’t know what kind of illogical wordplay this is.”

Finally, the NewJeans members’ mothers expressed their feelings, saying, “Since these problems usually happen in blind spots that others don’t know well, we worry that it will eventually just be covered up as time passes. Because of such concerns and suspicions, we are actually very worried about the children’s life within HYBE.”

They continued, “We have protested about various problems besides this one to the changed ADOR management and have gone through many discussions, but since nothing has been resolved for several months, we are now in a state of almost giving up and resignation, so we are more worried about the future. Therefore, it seems the only thing we can hope for and do now is to have faith that the truth will win. Since lies cannot last forever, we are just holding onto the belief that the truth will be revealed, even if not right now.”

Meanwhile, regarding these suspicions of CCTV concealment raised by the NewJeans mothers, a HYBE official replied, “We are currently thoroughly verifying the facts regarding the relevant content.”