The fallout from the sexual assault and mistreatment scandal involving Gaeun (ex-MADEIN) and 143 Entertainment continues to expand, as the former A&R head of 143 Entertainment (and also former Bob Girls member Nam Yu Jeong) gave an interview in which she backed Gaeun’s side of the story, but also revealed Lee Yonghak‘s behavior happened to other girls as well and started with Gaeun when she was a minor.
Worth noting that this is not a first-hand witness account, but rather something she says she confirmed by talking to others about the events and the CEO.
Part of the broadcast of ex 143 Entertainment employee with CBS 김현정의 뉴스쇼 pic.twitter.com/akOZwtfiWZ
— The Seven Pact (@TheSevenPact) April 30, 2025She also mentions that the company was giving out luxury bags to certain members/trainees but struggled to pay staff, with the inference being that if you looked at the sexual harassment in a positive light then they’d be rewarded.
Yujeong also mentions that the company asked the parents of members for money for activities totalling hundreds of millions of won, but didn’t inform the members of it, leaving them incensed when they found out. The host mentions this is an old company practice, where the CEO goes to the parents and basically says if they want comeback then they should pay for it.
With regards to the settlement, she says people are losing track of the sexual assault, and that the only reason settlement was brought up is because they assumed they were taking responsibility and admitting wrongdoing.
Heo Yoojung via CBS 김현정의 뉴스쇼 pic.twitter.com/SRWZAe7CxT
— The Seven Pact (@TheSevenPact) April 30, 2025I mean … regardless, easing monetary burden can help the victim and shouldn’t be looked down on as a form of compensation. Doesn’t mean nothing happened or whatever the company is trying to infer. They basically traumatized her and ruined her career, and him going to jail is nice, but it won’t help her materially.
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Additionally, there was an interesting exchange at the end where Yujeong mentioned that she started her PhD with the aim of establishing a better training system for K-pop, which matches her education journey post-idol career.
Following Bob Girls’ disbandment, she entered Chung-Ang University’s graduate school on her mother’s advice and graduated early with a master’s degree in cultural arts management as a valedictorian. She later pursued a doctorate and started working as a teaching assistant at the university’s medical school.
Impressive.
Anyway, she said the environment in terms of abuse and hours has improved recently, especially a bigger companies, but smaller companies tended to have more direct interaction with the CEO, which leads to more cases like this.
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While I suppose part of this testimony being useful relies on trusting Yujeong, there’s no reason to trust 143 for reasons I’ve already written about, nothing she said strikes me as particularly odd about what she’s saying, and this is also literally basically what she does. Yu Jeong is the exact kind of person that would recognize abusive practices and have the outside prospects (education) to speak out, which is probably why she stepped forward.
English (US) · 