On June 10th, Belift Lab issued an official statement saying, “After watching CEO Min Hee-jin’s second press conference on May 31st, we decided that we could no longer delay expressing our stance. We are now sharing our position regarding CEO Min in writing and through video.”
Belift Lab emphasized, “The decision by the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 50 on May 30th was about granting an injunction to prevent HYBE from exercising its voting rights at ADOR’s Extraordinary General Meeting. It was not a ruling on the plagiarism issue. It is misleading to interpret it as if CEO Min won a ruling on the plagiarism matter.”
“Separate from the injunction, the criminal case we filed against CEO Min for obstruction of business and defamation will now proceed. Despite achieving remarkable debut results that will go down in K-pop history, our artists, members of Belift Lab and participating creators have been burdened and silenced. We will be filing an additional civil lawsuit today to hold CEO Min accountable for the damages.”
Belift Lab expressed strong regret, saying, “During her second press conference, CEO Min appeared to offer a gesture of reconciliation. However, she failed to apologize or reflect on the severe malicious comments endured by innocent victims. Instead, she shifted the blame to others, such as the media.”
In addition, the company also released a video claiming that NewJeans plagiarized other groups, only to be further condemned.
Particularly, the video posted by Belift Lab contains various footage of NewJeans and compares it side by side with footage from other groups, including GFRIEND, IZ*ONE, Sunmi, VIVIZ, IVE, NMIXX, Oh My Girl, LE SSERAFIM, BLACKPINK, ENHYPEN, Triple S, LABOUM, BTS, DIA, Mexican group Jeans and Pristin.
In particular, it describes BLACKPINK as “The perfect celebrity that can’t be approached”, and IVE as a group where “Everyone looks like a doll and is envied like a princess”.
Finally, NewJeans are said to be “the objects of romance in the imagination of adults” despite being teenagers - a statement that has aroused immediate controversies.
Additionally, Belift Lab also accused NewJeans of copying NMIXX’s choreography for “Love Me Like This” for “Ditto”, only for netizens to point out that “Ditto” was released before “Love Me Like This” and rendering the claims ridiculous.
sources: kbizoom
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