NewJeans Breaks Up With HYBE: The Truth Behind Min Hee Jin's "Power Struggle"

As tensions between ADOR and their flagship group NewJeans have yet to cool down, HYBE's subsidiary company has suddenly announced a new direction: a global boy band audition competition called "ADOR Boys 2025".

The campaign is accompanied by a subliminal message: "All doors are open right here" — an affirmation that ADOR is ready to rewrite its future, not just relying on the five girls who were once considered "golden gooses".

The carefully crafted introductory video depicts the boys from many cultures, pursuing their musical dreams, evoking the feeling of a hopeful new beginning. However, behind that inspiring picture lies a big question mark: Was this a carefully prepared strategy, or just a defensive move when ADOR's position was shaken by the risk of breaking up with NewJeans?

NewJeans – the only girl group under ADOR – is in a serious crisis with its own management company. The conflict began to erupt in April 2024, when HYBE suddenly accused Min Hee Jin, the former CEO and the person behind NewJeans’ success, of plotting to take control of the company. In a fierce response, Min Hee Jin accused HYBE of copying NewJeans’ creative ideas for other projects, officially igniting one of the most intense power struggles in Kpop.

After being fired, Min Hee Jin has not appeared with NewJeans – and since then, the five-member group, consisting of Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein, has publicly expressed their desire to terminate their contract with ADOR for the first time. This is a rare move in the Kpop idol world, especially for a group at the height of their fame. They declared their relationship with the company “unsalvageable” and decided to pursue legal action to regain their autonomy.

In response, ADOR quickly tightened control, banning all independent activities of the group. By March 2025, the court ruled in favor of ADOR, even imposing fines of up to 1 billion won for each member if they violated the contract. However, legal constraints cannot mend the broken trust. NewJeans' legal representative affirmed: "Changing a producer is not simply picking someone from a list. It is a spirit, a vision, and an irreplaceable companionship."

The latest hearing on June 5th further revealed the court’s stance: encouraging ADOR and NewJeans to find common ground. But the conflict between the two sides is now more than just a contract dispute. It is a confrontation between two opposing development philosophies: one side is the artist-producer creative model with an “indie within the corporation” feel, and the other side is the centralized management model, operating in the typical industrialized way of HYBE.

In an ecosystem where everything from music production to artist image is standardized, ADOR was once an outlier. Led by Min Hee Jin, the company brought a distinct aesthetic to the K-pop scene—from fashion to music to storytelling—that helped create a unique identity for NewJeans. When the bond between producer and artist breaks down, recreating that harmony becomes nearly impossible.

With its global boyband audition program ADOR Boys 2025, the company appears to be looking to rebuild from scratch: expanding its artist roster and reducing the risk of relying on a single group. But with public confidence shaken by the crisis, the question is: can ADOR create a “NewJeans for men”? This is not only a test of ADOR’s restructuring and management capabilities, but also a test of the entire K-pop ecosystem: Can the industry adapt when its “mainstream stars” are no longer content to play by the old rules?

While NewJeans' future remains uncertain, what's certain is that they've left a legacy that's forced the industry to rethink: Who really holds the power in K-pop – the system or the individual? And where, ultimately, does creativity come from?

HYBE, Min Hee Jin fight: NewJeans becomes a pawn in the upper echelon war Milo11:56:26 13/06/2025On the afternoon of June 12, the Seoul Central District Court continued to heat up with the third trial in the sensational lawsuit between the entertainment giant HYBE and former CEO of ADOR record label, Min Hee Jin.