What Did Min Hee Jin Think About HYBE’s Internal Documents, Having Seen Them Firsthand?

This article is part of our coverage of HYBE vs. ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. You can read more and view the entire timeline here.

Amid the international backlash over HYBE‘s internal documents containing disrespectful comments on fellow K-Pop management companies and their artists, former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin has revealed her thoughts on the documents—having seen them firsthand.

Min Hee Jin | @스쿨오브뮤직/YouTube

On popular music critic Kim Young Dae‘s YouTube channel, as a guest on his show, Kim Young Dae’s School of Music, on October 29, 2024 (KST), Min said that she stopped herself from commenting on the document for a whole year before finally sending a scathing email, criticizing the practice.

Well, there is a reason I rejected the document that is now at the center of everyone’s attention… I wrote them a scathing email criticizing it. I was like, ‘I held back for a whole year, but I can’t take this anymore. What are you all doing?! For whose benefit are these reports being written? Do you all find this entertaining or something?’

— Min Hee Jin

Min added that seeing the “reports” that compiled the document “stressed her out so much” that, after a while, she stopped reading them at all.

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It ended up stressing me out so much that I stopped reading them at all. Like, I could not get myself to read any of that. What purpose did it serve? Who was it serving? I could not understand.

— Min Hee Jin

But the real reason Min was against the document was for the sake of the K-Pop entertainment industry and its people.

But what really scared me about that document was… Given how big the business has grown, there was a lot of people who don’t really know anything about the industry practices being hired. Some of them have taken up higher-up, C-level positions, too. And all those people were learning about the entertainment business through that document, basically. That terrified me.

And the thing is, people who are just starting out tend to learn to believe and do as they’re told. So, for these people to be given material like that? What would that do to the entertainment industry in the long run? Maybe these people might think something is a little off at first. But people adjust. They might think, ‘Maybe I’m the weird one’ or ‘Maybe this is how this industry works.’ I’m just saying, that document could have developed some really wrong perceptions.

— Min Hee Jin

Min had hoped that her criticism would stop the reports—though, she was the one who got stopped in her track in the following series of events.

민희진 하이브 업계 동향 보고서(ㅋㅋ ㅗ) 1년을 참다참다 못 참고 신랄한 비판 메일 보냈다고….. pic.twitter.com/lsFT6X0xqq

— 👊🏻 (@fhbfhbfhbfhb) October 29, 2024

I said, ‘Look. If you all think there is nothing wrong with these reports, then you should let everyone take a look.’

— Min Hee Jin

HYBE’s CEO, Lee Jae Sang, has since apologized on behalf of the company for the document. Lee acknowledged that “the documents lacked awareness of the potential issues they would bring” and claimed to have “halted the creation of future documents” as a response to the criticism received.

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HYBE vs. ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin