Belift Lab head Kim Tae Ho addressed internal HYBE documents containing problematic comments about minors.
On October 24, the National Assembly's Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee called Belift Lab CEO and HYBE COO Kim Tae Ho as a witness for the ongoing audit against HYBE at the request of Democratic Party representative Min Hyung Bae. Representative Min presented a file labeled "Weekly Music Industry Report" and asked, "Is this an official document used by the company? What's the purpose of discussing something like this?"
The 'Weekly Music Industry Report' document included inappropriate disparagement and evaluations of minors, including comments about members debuting at an awkward age, statements saying "no one is visually appealing," and "some members are surprisingly unattractive." Representative Min further emphasized that the content was specifically directed at a group composed of minors.
In response, Kim Tae Ho explained, "As a company involved in the K-pop industry, we are closely monitoring the opinions of fans and the industry regarding artists under HYBE and K-pop in general. This document is part of that process." He later added, "I do not remember the content of the document. We review a lot of monitoring materials. That document does not represent HYBE's opinion or official judgement. It appears to be a compilation of various online writings."
When Representative Min criticized, "The company created the 'Weekly Music Industry Report,' so why are you saying other people are behind it?" Kim Tae Ho responded, "I'm not aware of the situations of other companies."
The contents of the 'Weekly Music Industry Report' are currently going viral on online communities with one trending post stating, "It's been reported HYBE documented and distributed disparaging materials about other groups like aespa, ZEROBASEONE, and DKZ to executive officers, haha. They got totally exposed during the National Assembly audit today."
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