{"id":548210,"date":"2026-03-18T11:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/548210\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:15:12","slug":"national-pension-caught-in-crossfire-over-heeseungs-departure-from-enhypen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/548210\/","title":{"rendered":"National Pension caught in crossfire over Heeseung\u2019s departure from Enhypen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fan complaints flood NPS call center, prompting CEO to stress nonintervention despite stake in parent firm<\/p>\n

\"Heeseung Heeseung (Belift Lab) <\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s National Pension Service was drawn into unexpected K-pop backlash after fans, angered by Heeseung\u2019s departure from Enhypen earlier this month, flooded one of its call centers with complaints.<\/p>\n

The state pension operator \u2014 which runs one of the world\u2019s largest pension funds, with assets exceeding 1,600 trillion won \u2014 is a major shareholder in Hybe, the parent company of Enhypen\u2019s management agency, Belift Lab.<\/p>\n

Kim Sung-joo, the NPS chief executive, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the agency’s international support center was temporarily paralyzed last week by a surge of calls and emails from overseas fans. The disruption affected services for foreign residents in South Korea and Koreans living abroad, leaving many callers unable to access assistance, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NPS is a long-term investor managing retirement funds and holds stakes in companies in more than 80 countries,\u201d Kim wrote. \u201cHowever, it does not intervene in the management or personnel matters of individual firms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat also applies to the formation of K-pop groups and decisions regarding their members,\u201d he added, referring to the complaints.<\/p>\n

The backlash against the national pension service appears to have been fueled by posts circulating on X urging fans to direct their protest at the fund over Heeseung\u2019s exit. Some questioned whether the NPS had been informed of the decision or had considered its potential impact on the company\u2019s market value.<\/p>\n

Online posts showed users sharing contact details for the NPS international support center and encouraging others to file complaints.<\/p>\n

Heeseung, the group\u2019s main vocalist, announced his departure on March 10, saying he wished to pursue a solo career outside the group. Despite intensifying fan protests, Belift Lab told The Korea Herald that Heeseung will not return to the group (see our previous report<\/a>).<\/p>\n

junheee@heraldcorp.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fan complaints flood NPS call center, prompting CEO to stress nonintervention despite stake in parent firm Heeseung (Belift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9974,64,63,134,9975,9971,9970,9976,136,9972,9973,9969,9978,9979,9977],"class_list":["post-548210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-asia-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-k-pop","tag-koreaherald","tag-korean-news","tag-kpop","tag-music","tag-south-korea-news","tag-south-korea-news-in-english","tag-the-korea-herald","tag-9978","tag-9979","tag-9977"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}