Starship Entertainment has issued a public apology after one of their employees shared an inappropriate and harassing synthetic photo of Ahn Yujin from IVE on social media.

On January 15th, the company posted an official statement on its account, titled "Apology and Commitment to Prevent Recurrence Regarding the Infringement of Artist Rights."

In the statement, Starship expressed deep regret, saying, "We sincerely apologize to our artist Ahn Yujin, who was hurt by the serious mistake made by one of our employees managing our Chinese social media on January 9th, and to the fans who were also affected."

The company admitted that the incident was a result of poor management and emphasized that the employee involved had been removed from the duties related to the incident.

"We have taken the strongest disciplinary action and promise to overhaul our internal management system to prevent this from happening again", they added.

Starship also personally apologized to Ahn Yujin, saying, "We will do our best to repair the damage caused and are taking continuous legal action against those spreading false information and defamation about our artist."

The company concluded by saying, "We apologize once again for the disappointment and worry this has caused our fans. We will learn from this incident and strive to regain your trust by becoming a more responsible company."

The controversy began when the person in charge of IVE’s official Weibo account shared a synthetic photo of Ahn Yujin in a disrespectful context on January 9th.

Fans from both Korea and abroad were quick to criticize the mistake, which led to the company’s public apology and promise of action.

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ADOR is fighting to keep its hold on NewJeans (NJZ) and has revealed in court that the group’s success wasn’t just about talent—it was backed by massive financial support from HYBE.

On March 7, the Seoul Central District Court held a hearing on ADOR’s injunction request to keep managing NewJeans and prevent the members from signing their own advertising deals.

ADOR argued, “NewJeans is one of Korea's top girl groups, and while their talent and hard work are key, that alone doesn’t explain their rapid rise. From their trainee days, our entire team—over 50 staff members, including stylists, choreographers, and directors—dedicated themselves to their success.”

The company then dropped a major revelation, saying, “HYBE invested 21 billion KRW ($15.7 million) in ADOR in two phases. This level of funding for a single group is unheard of. Thanks to this, we built a special fan platform just for NewJeans and spent 10 billion KRW on their debut and marketing alone.”

But that’s not all—ADOR also pointed out that NewJeans heavily benefited from HYBE’s connections, saying, “Before their debut, they were featured in BTS’ music videos and promoted their songs with HYBE artists through challenge videos. They were introduced as ‘BTS’ little sister group’ and marketed as the next BTS—even surpassing BTS.”

This legal battle is far from over. NewJeans made headlines last November when they held a surprise press conference, declaring, “Our exclusive contract with ADOR is over,” and announced their new group name, NJZ. They’re even set to perform at ComplexCon in Hong Kong on March 23, hinting at their future without ADOR.

However, ADOR insists that NewJeans is still under contract until July 31, 2029, and has taken legal action to prevent them from leaving. With both sides standing firm, fans are eagerly watching to see how this high-stakes fight will unfold.

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