CEO of Belift Lab (ILLIT's management company) Kim Tae Ho recently had an interview with Osen.
During the interview, he mentioned ILLIT's reaction to the noise related to NewJeans, such as the suspicion that ILLIT was accused of plagiarizing NewJeans, and the suspicion that an ILLIT manager asked the group to ignore Hanni.
According to CEO Kim Tae Ho: "At first, the members found it very difficult. They were worried about the company, so they just complained to each other and said it was okay.
In particular, the members were extremely shocked when the “ignorance” incident happened. The members themselves knew the truth about the incident. They asked why things had gone this far? Did the CEO do something wrong? What did we do wrong? I think the girls felt scared when they had to go on stage.
But now, they have become more resilient. I hope that if they overcome this challenge, the members will become great artists. They have matured and are no longer rookies.
Again, I want to be clear that no one is telling ILLIT members to “ignore” anyone.
However, the sharing of the CEO of Belift Lab company seems to have caused ILLIT to receive an adverse reaction.
On a large Korean online community, a post that attracted more than 80,000 views pointed out: “From the beginning, Hanni did not name any specific group. She asserted that the artists greeted each other enthusiastically, but a manager was the one who told the group to ignore it.
HYBE took the initiative to publicly identify ILLIT as the group mentioned in Hanni's incident. Now, HYBE is dragging the idol back and the idol is also involved."
In the comments section, netizens left many negative reactions towards ILLIT and CEO Belift Lab:
“Wouldn’t NewJeans tell you why it’s going this far? If you sit still, you’ll be abandoned, betrayed, and copied.”
“What’s wrong with HYBE? They openly mention artists’ opinions like that. Do they really want to quit the entertainment industry?”
“This group knows that NewJeans is being abandoned, ignored, harassed and boycotted by HYBE, and still says that? You guys should know what your CEO did wrong, right? Or is he living in a valley without a cell phone? But HYBE is really evil, using their idols as shields while hiding behind them.”
Several other highly-engaged comments also criticized HYBE for using ILLIT as a shield amid the controversy.
