SEOUL, October 9 — The mothers of K-pop group NewJeans have now entered the fray amidst tensions between the group, its agency ADOR and parent company HYBE continues.

Belift Lab had earlier released a statement that claimed that Koo Sung Won, the manager of the group Illit, had never instructed the group to ignore NewJeans member Hanni after she had greeted them in the hallway.

Belift claimed they had reviewed video footage that showed Illit members bowing to Hanni on the day of the incident but the footage after the bow is not available but refuted claims from the parents of NewJeans that the footage was deleted on purpose.

Instead, the agency said that it was on the security company who have a policy to delete surveillance footage after a certain time period had passed.

The agency also said CCTV does not record audio so there would have been no audio proof of the altercation anyhow.

NewJeans’ members mothers were not pleased with the statement, calling it “incorrect.”

In an interview with Illgan Sports, they said: “Belift Lab issued a statement on the 7th, but there are too many incorrect facts in it.”

They had requested ADOR’s new CEO, Kim Joo-young to correct the statement but had refused.

Kim had allegedly told them, “Even if we issue a statement based on the explanations given by the parents and Hanni, it is likely that additional rebuttals will arise, and if that happens, we would have to rebut again, leading to a vicious cycle.”

The group of mothers said they felt they had no choice but to speak to media, in this case Ilgan Sports.

HYBE has also weighed in on the debacle, defending Belift Lab and the latter’s investigation.

One of the NewJeans’ member’s mothers, known only as A, said that Belift had missed the point of the problem, which was not about etiquette or greeting but the ill-treatment of Hanni.

A said, “Hanni has never raised an issue regarding whether she greeted them or not. The issue is that the manager told the other artists to ignore her.”

She also said that Hanni had not named the group that was told to ignore her, nor the agency involved but Belift Lab exposing themselves had damaged both the reputations of NewJeans and their families.

As of press time, neither HYBE nor Belift Lab have responded to the latest statements by NewJeans’ parents.