Online posts uploaded by Min Hee-jin, former CEO of K-pop agency ADOR, on Nov. 28 explaining that she did not force any of her former employees to not vote for the Democratic Party [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Online posts uploaded by Min Hee-jin, former CEO of K-pop agency ADOR, on Nov. 28 explaining that she did not force any of her former employees to not vote for the Democratic Party [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
Former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin disclosed that she is a Democratic Party supporter amid increasing allegations that she forced employees of the K-pop company to “not vote” for the party.
 
“I’ve always been a supporter of the Democratic Party,” Min said on her Instagram account on Friday. “I personally voted for former President Moon Jae-in. I didn’t expect that a comment I made in 2020 out of disappointment with real estate policy would be so distorted.”
 
 
“This is something all my acquaintances know — I’ve supported President Lee Jae Myung consistently since his time as mayor of Seongnam,” she continued. “I took part in impeachment protests [for former President Yoon Suk Yeol] and regularly sent supplies to demonstrators. I don’t understand what kind of framing people are trying to create based on a private KakaoTalk message.”
 
Min also posted a video that appears to show her attending a protest last winter calling for the impeachment of Yoon, along with screenshots showing her providing bread and gimbap (seaweed rice rolls) to demonstrators. She also posted a photo taken on June 3 — the day of the presidential election — in which she is wearing a blue shirt and holding a blue bag against a sky blue backdrop. Blue is the official color of the Democratic Party.
 
“Yesterday in court, HYBE tried to inject an unrelated political frame into the case,” Min said. “I wanted to respond, but the judge said the issue was not relevant, so I refrained out of respect.”
 
Online posts uploaded by Min Hee-jin, former CEO of K-pop agency ADOR, on Nov. 28 explaining that she did not force any of her former employees to not vote for the Democratic Party [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Online posts uploaded by Min Hee-jin, former CEO of K-pop agency ADOR, on Nov. 28 explaining that she did not force any of her former employees to not vote for the Democratic Party [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
On Thursday, the Seoul Central District Court held a hearing on two ongoing legal disputes between Min and HYBE: one over HYBE’s attempt to terminate their shareholder agreement, and another over Min’s exercise of a put option to sell her shares.
 
During the hearing, HYBE raised claims that Min pressured employees to follow certain political views. As evidence, HYBE reportedly submitted an online post from an anonymous employee on a workplace community board last year. The post read, “It might be hard to believe, but before the election, HJ [Hee-jin] called employees in and told them not to vote for the Democratic Party. After the election, she scolded anyone who said they had voted for the Democratic Party. At first, I thought it was a joke, but after getting berated for three hours, I seriously questioned whether I was working at a legitimate company.”
 
HYBE also submitted messages allegedly sent by Min to an employee in December 2020, including: “Why did you vote for the Democratic Party?” and “If you don’t have a party to vote for, you shouldn’t vote at all — like me.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]