In the midst of NewJeans’ potential full-group return to ADOR, Korean netizens have turned their attention to BTS Jungkook’s comments on the conflict.
In a viral post on the Korean community site Instiz, a poster was met with mixed reactions after bringing renewed attention to a series of posts Jungkook made via his dog Bam’s Instagram account back in September 2024. In his first post, Jungkook stated, “Artists are not guilty,” along with five hearts corresponding to the NewJeans’ members’ colours. He later made a second post which read, “Don’t use them.”
Though the posts didn’t name NewJeans directly, BIGHIT MUSIC released a statement shortly afterwards confirming that Jungkook made the posts “with the belief that, under no circumstances should young artists be dragged into disputes or used as shields.”
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The timing of his resurfaced comments comes as no surprise, given NewJeans’ current situation. On November 13, ADOR announced that they were “coordinating individual meeting schedules” with Minji, Danielle, and Hanni following Hyein and Haerin’s return to the company; in the meantime, Min Hee Jin has shared her support for the members’ full group return.
Over on Instiz, the original poster noted that Jungkook’s posts were made before the escalation of the conflict, praising him for speaking up. In the comments, however, reactions were mixed. While many netizens chimed in with similar reactions and agreed with Jungkook’s assessment of the situation, others criticised the vagueness of his statements and the fandom fights that followed.
- “At the very least, someone who can say something like that is cool. Even now it’s the truth. And he did get dragged by both sides back then anyway.”
- “I don’t think any Jungkook fan would want posts like this though.”
- “I remember people attacking him saying HYBE was media-playing after that agency statement. Looking back, it was just the truth lmao.”
- “Back then everyone assumed ‘Don’t use them’ was aimed at HYBE. I asked, ‘What if the subject is Min Hee Jin? What if he’s targeting her?’ and I got swarmed by Jungkook fans and NewJeans fans lol. I said if you want to make a point, at least clarify the subject and the target, but everyone insisted it was HYBE he was targeting, and I got swarmed even more lol. Now I’m seeing a bunch of people saying it was targeting Min Hee Jin. Wow, funny.”
- “It was both… He just meant don’t use artists in your damn fight.”
- “Yeah, it was both. And not just Min Hee Jin and Bang Si Hyuk, but all the adults whispering in artists’ ears, pushing their greed, gaslighting them, all included. It’s funny seeing people who did the same thing, couldn’t understand it, and used it for division, now saying this stuff.”
- “For real, looking back it’s even more facts. He drew a line for the artists in an internal executive dispute.”
- “Posting vague stuff on Instagram instead of saying it outright… what courage lol. He’ll probably never escape Bang Si Hyuk.”
Following the court’s ruling that NewJeans’ contract with ADOR remains valid, netizens appear to be more split than ever over which company head is to blame. While many remain critical of Bang Si Hyuk and HYBE, many are turning the tide on Min Hee Jin.
