New Jeans, petition for Min Hee-jin was a ‘choice to live’

While the group New Jeans submitted a petition to the court to support Min Hee-jin, CEO of Adore, there is analysis in the industry that this is the result of New Jeans' choice to survive in the music industry.

According to the music industry on the 18th, all New Jeans members submitted a petition to the court before the hearing on the injunction banning the exercise of voting rights filed by Adore against Hive.

This is the first time that Newgenes has made an official statement regarding this incident. Sejong Law Firm, Adore's legal representative, did not reveal the specific contents of the petition, but said that the petition was filled with the content that CEO Min should not be dismissed.

Regarding this issue, the industry believed that even without considering the bond that New Jeans shares with CEO Min, they had no choice but to side with 'Mom' CEO Min in order to survive in the music industry.

The issue can be viewed in two ways: when CEO Min defends his position as Adore's representative by Hive and when he resigns from his position as representative.

From Newgenes' perspective, if CEO Min is not dismissed, the company must maintain an ongoing relationship with CEO Min and should not damage its relationship with him.

Conversely, the same holds true even if we assume that Representative Min is dismissed. New Genes is in fear that its activities will be restricted by Hive following the dismissal of CEO Min. This is a so-called ‘storage’ concern. Newgenes may feel that a protective device to prevent storage is necessary.

If New Jeans enters contract renewal season after CEO Min is dismissed, it is unclear whether individual members will renew their contracts. From Hive's perspective, it is possible to strengthen ties by providing full support in the face of uncertainty about contract renewal. However, if there is uncertainty about renewing the New Jeans contract, there is also the possibility of shifting the focus to other girl groups such as Aillet.

However, since New Jeans has publicly shown itself to be on CEO Min's side, the story goes differently. This is because conditions have been created where Hive cannot neglect New Genes’ future activities.

If New Genes' activities become less active after CEO Min's dismissal, it is very likely that public opinion will form that Hive is at a disadvantage because New Genes sided with Representative Min. Accordingly, the industry's judgment is that Hive will not be able to stop supporting New Genes' activities in the future.

There were suspicions that CEO Min disparaged New Genes using profanity, but the situation of New Genes did not change. Unfortunately, the state of mind of the New Jeans members is not a consideration right now. Now that Newgenes has become the center of Hive's internal conflict, the only way for them to survive is to stand on CEO Min's side. The problem is that if this strategy continues even after dismissal, New Genes could easily end up like a second FiftyFifty incident. In that case, it could be the worst move for the members who are active under the name of New Jeans. As Minji said, I hope that New Genes will firmly maintain its position.

Lee Min-kyung, Ten Asia Reporter 2min_ror@tenasia.co.kr