Is HYBE trying to get rid of New Jeans? K-pop giant's newly leaked documents spark outrage
Is there a conspiracy to oust New Jeans from their agency HYBE? Fans of the K-pop girl group got a huge shock after the music giant internal documents were made accessible to the public by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Although the documents were quickly made private, citing potential public impact, netizens swiftly shared the legal details online.
Among the disclosures was a strategic outline involving HYBE’s girl groups, suggesting a plan to phase out NewJeans. The documents indicated that with the addition of ILLIT to the label’s roster, alongside NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM, the groups had collectively been branded as “NEW-IL-LE.”
A Koreaboo report stated, “As various communities began to use ‘HYBE’s New-ILL-LE’ to refer to NewJeans, ILLIT, and LE SSERAFIM, people began to mention ILLIT more.” It added, “Right now, it might be necessary to tie LE SSERAFIM to BLACKPINK, aespa, and IVE into the category of girl groups as million sellers in the first week of sales and separate them from the 4th generation. We were plagued by the term New-ILL-LE for a few days, but we can just throw “New” away and start a whole new thing.”
This acronym gained traction across digital platforms to celebrate the latest generation of girl group idols. However, the leaked plans revealed an intention to drop “NEW” from the acronym, instead positioning LE SSERAFIM as part of a new million-selling girl group category, marking them as HYBE’s elite. The goal appeared to be enhancing LE SSERAFIM’s prominence while
