Article: "Proposal to distribute profits per job.." confrontations between Hong Jin Young vs. Music K still ongoing after 3 days

Source: Herald Pop

Hong Jin Young announced on her Instagram on the 23rd that she has filed a lawsuit to terminate her exclusive contract with Music K.

Hong Jin Young said, "I have started legal proceedings to terminate my contract with the agency that I have thought of as family for over 10 years since debut. I have been thinking about this decision everyday since April and every day was painful with doubts, worries, and fears. Because I trusted my agency, I never tried to properly assert my opinions but instead immersed myself in the work without ever skipping out on my schedules. I saw comments only accusing me of being obsessed with money and I hated that they felt that way. I also wished I could take a break but I thought that working hard to perform consecutive events per day and dozens of events per month was repaying my agency for taking me in when I was a nobody."

She continued, "But my health suddenly took a turn for the worst in June and I had to have surgery for inflammation in my lower abdomen. It was really difficult for me to continue my schedules and I pleaded the agency many times because I was always in pain. But they enforced my schedule nonetheless. Moreover, there were many things that were taking place using my name that I was never aware of. There were dual contracts with advertisers I didn't know about. There were suspicious accounting practices showing monthly "commissions" expenses through a "paper" company that I wasn't aware of. The money from the commissions sometimes amounted to millions and tens of millions of won. They forced me to enter into joint business contracts I never wanted and forced me to take cuts from my profits from my events and CFs. After thinking it over, I sent my agency a notice to terminate my exclusive contract in June."

Hong Jin Young's Instagram post on the 23rd about the contract terminations

Following her statements, her agency Music K put out an official press release that explained why she had filed a lawsuit for contract terminations.

Music K stated, "We saw Hong Jin Young's post online on Friday but regardless of anything we would like to first apologize to the fans for causing concern. Our agency is in ongoing discussions with Hong Jin Young to resolve the misunderstandings so we can't help but regret that she has one-sidedly revealed her position through SNS. Since debut, we have always fulfilled our management duties by respecting Hong Jin Young's opinions. We set her schedule so she would have time to rest and did our best to negotiate and promote her so that she could appear in the broadcasts and CFs she chose. Even though we were not legally bound to renew her initial contract before contract period expired, we readily agreed to do us and increased her share of profits and agreed to other conditions she wanted."

"However, at the beginning of this year, Hong Jin Young began requesting that certain parts of her contract be erased. These parts included the clause that artists would pay damages to the agency if the artist suddenly decided to terminate the contract. We told her it was difficult to make that request without sufficient reason so she appointed two law firms, one of which is the biggest law firm in the country and requested every contract we had made with third parties as well as our accounting in those deals. We released the documents and she accused us of manipulating accounts."

"Suddenly in June 2019, Hong Jin Young asked us to cancel her scheduled events without giving any valid reasons and started acting in other inexplicable ways. She claimed that we forced her to attend schedules during her surgery but the agency only received a simple message saying she wasn't able to attend a schedule that day, she never mentioned a surgery to us. Moreover, she left for a holiday in South East Asia two days later and never provided evidence that her health was of concern."

"We've also never entered into a dual contract with an advertiser. Despite our transparent responses regarding the issue, Hong Jin Young sent us one-sided notice of contract terminations. We would like to clarify that Music K and Hong Jin Young's contract still stands. We have done our best to explain her suspicions so that misunderstandings can be resolved and will do our best to resolve the conflict."

On the 25th, Hong Jin Young revealed through her legal representative, "Without me, the company will starve. If I receive new schedules after our contract terminations, I will distribute the profits with the agency for each job. This is my last consideration."

On the same day, an official from Music K confirmed to Herald Pop, "It's true that Hong Jin Young's legal representative made such an offer to our legal representative.

It's been three days since the confrontations between Hong Jin Young and Music K and netizens are divided on the issue based on each party's positions. Many are paying attention to how the dispute between the agency and Hong Jin Young will be resolved.

1. [+110, -14] She's earning billions of dollars already and is well aware that if you break the contract you'll have to pay a penalty fee. But now she's saying she's give them part of her profits if they break the contract with her? I'm confused.
2. [+89, -1] Hmm...I don't know about everything else but she said they forced her to complete the schedule despite her complaining about the pain but yet two days later she went on a trip to South East Asia? Did I read that right? If so, I don't know who to believe anymore.
3. [+88, -7] She needs to take care of herself first.
4. [+85, -55] I don't know if the contract is too complicated but isn't 10 billion won settlement rather low for her being under contract for 5 years?
5. [+27, -0] No matter how good the money is, your conscience should come first.
6. [+20, -3] What the? So she got 10 billion won in five years? and went to South East Asia two days after cancellation? It doesn't add up.
7. [+18, -1] Kim and Jang right? ~~ daebak. Her true colors are being revealed now.