Hybe Fires Back At The New York Times Over Newjeans Contract Exposé And Points The Finger At Min Hee-jin

As a bombshell report alleges NewJeans‘ teenage members signed away basic protections, HYBE says the contract was shaped by the very person now cast as their defender and the fallout is reopening one of K-pop’s messiest corporate feuds.

When The New York Times published excerpts of NewJeans’ confidential 2022 exclusive contract this week, it was always going to detonate. Here was one of the most commercially dominant K-pop acts of the decade, members who signed as minors between 14 and 17, and a set of contract clauses reviewed by five legal and industry experts that reportedly stripped out standard protections for rest, education, and personal rights. HYBE’s response, issued just a day later, didn’t just defend the contract. It redirected the entire narrative toward a name at the center of K-pop’s biggest corporate drama of the past two years: Min Hee-jin.

What the Times Actually Reported

The Times investigation, published November 5, said it had obtained NewJeans’ private contract with ADOR the HYBE-affiliated label that launched the group and found language that waived members’ rights to “sleep, rest and free choice,” omitted standard minor-protection clauses, and barred “insincere attitude” and “inappropriate romantic relationships.” Perhaps the most eye-catching detail: the contract reportedly gave the label indefinite rights to use AI-generated versions of the members’ voices, along with provisions that reduced royalty payments on post-contract music sales and imposed steep financial penalties for early exit. The report also noted that during their trainee period, members allegedly practiced until 2 a.m. for language, vocal, and dance lessons with no guaranteed rest window, and that four of the five eventually left school altogether.

Member Hanni has previously put some of these allegations on the public record herself she testified before South Korea’s National Assembly last year, accusing ADOR of “deliberate miscommunications and manipulation.” That testimony, now layered under a new round of documentary evidence, is part of why this story landed with such force internationally rather than staying contained to Korean entertainment press.

New Jeans members dressed in black / News 1

HYBE’s Counterpunch: “Min Hee-jin Was the Contracting Party”

HYBE’s rebuttal, issued through a point-by-point statement, didn’t simply deny wrongdoing it reframed who was actually responsible for drafting the deal. According to the company, the contract draft was first shared on January 7, 2022, followed by three months of back-and-forth: Q&A sessions, email exchanges, and legal review by lawyers representing the NewJeans members, before the final contract was signed that April. Crucially, HYBE said the negotiating parties included Min Hee-jin then ADOR’s CEO a vice president she herself appointed, each member and their parents, and legal representatives for some of the members. The company said it explicitly asked the Times to state this fact clearly and was refused.

This detail is the crux of HYBE’s defense, and it only makes sense in the context of the past two years of K-pop’s most-watched corporate battle. Min Hee-jin, the producer widely credited with NewJeans’ concept and aesthetic, was ousted from ADOR’s leadership amid an explosive dispute with HYBE in 2024 over allegations she tried to seize control of the label. She has since positioned herself publicly as an ally to the members against HYBE’s influence. By asserting that Min herself negotiated and signed the very contract now under fire, HYBE is attempting a pointed rhetorical move: if the contract is exploitative, the argument implies, its author was the person the group’s defenders have cast as their protector.

On Minor Protections, CCTV, and AI Voice Rights

HYBE addressed the report’s specific allegations individually. On the claim that the contract lacked the government’s standard minor-protection clauses, the company said its labels separately sign a “National Standard Youth Addendum Agreement” with trainees covering personal rights, sleep, education, and rest valid until the member turns 19, with a designated minor-protection officer required by law. On CCTV in practice rooms, HYBE said cameras exist only in shared spaces like rehearsal studios, framed as a safety measure against intrusion or theft rather than surveillance of the members themselves.

On the AI voice clause arguably the most forward-looking and unsettling allegation, given how contentious AI likeness rights have become across the entertainment industry HYBE said any such use requires individual artist consent, and that this was explained to and accepted by a member’s mother at signing. On the disputed penalty clauses, the company pointed to the ongoing Danielle lawsuit, arguing the same formula found in the government’s standard contract was used, and that the Seoul High Court previously found no issue with it during an earlier dispute.

Min Hee-jin speaking into a mic / News 1

Why This Story Won’t Stay Contained to One News Cycle

The numbers underscore why NewJeans became such valuable, closely guarded IP in the first place. HYBE invested roughly 21 billion won into ADOR across two rounds, with about 10 billion won reportedly spent on the debut album and marketing alone and members, by HYBE’s own account, received roughly 520 million won each in settlements in their first year of activity. Minji and Hanni even appeared in BTS music videos before their own debut, a rare head start reflecting just how much institutional weight was behind this group from day one. That scale of investment is precisely why the contract terms matter so much to international observers: NewJeans wasn’t a scrappy startup act negotiating from a position of weakness they were the most heavily resourced rookie debut in recent K-pop memory, which makes allegations of restrictive, rights-stripping language land even harder.

The group’s current state only deepens the complexity. Hanni, Haerin, and Hyein have returned to ADOR. Minji remains in discussions with the label. Danielle, meanwhile, is locked in active civil litigation against HYBE after her contract was terminated last year amid the broader fallout. Their contract with HYBE doesn’t expire until July 2029 meaning however this latest controversy resolves, the group and the company remain bound to each other for years yet, with a promised “summer of NewJeans” comeback in 2026 still unrealized and new music yet to surface.

The Bigger Picture

What makes this dispute so resonant beyond Korea is that it taps into a global conversation the music industry has been having for years: how much protection do teenage performers actually get when multimillion-dollar labels structure their earliest contracts? HYBE’s defense that Min Hee-jin herself negotiated these terms doesn’t resolve that question so much as it reframes who bears responsibility for the answer. For NewJeans’ members, caught between a label they’re contractually tied to until 2029 and a former mentor turned public advocate, the real story may be less about who signed what in 2022, and more about whether either side is actually centering what the group needs now.