SEOUL, Sept 15 — South Korean record label has made an official statement in defence of BTS’s Jungkook’s recent cryptic posts on Instagram.
Yesterday Jungkook posted a photo on his dog Bam’s official Instagram account together with five hearts and the message, “Artists are not guilty.”
While the caption itself was ambiguous, the colours of the five emojis matched the NewJeans members’ individual colours — leading many to speculate that the post was made in support of NewJeans amidst the kerfuffle surrounding Kpop entertainment conglomerate HYBE, it's subsidiary ADOR and its former CEO Min Hee-jin.
Several hours later, Jungkook posted again on Bam’s account with the caption, “Don’t use them.”
“We have confirmed that he made the posts because he thought that under no circumstances should young artists be dragged into conflicts or used as a shield.”
The label's carefully worded statement however stayed clear of referencing New Jeans, HYBE, ADOR or Hee-jin.
Earlier this week, the NewJeans members broke their silence over the ongoing drama with a live broadcast on YouTube in which they addressed HYBE directly and requested that Hee-jin be reinstated as CEO of ADOR by September 25.
Industry sources have suggested that the deadline indicates the group may be considering terminating its exclusive contract with Hybe, as it is unlikely that Hybe will reinstate Hee-jin given the ongoing dispute between both parties over management of ADOR.
