Is there a conspiracy to remove New Jeans from their agency HYBE? Fans of the K-pop girl group were in for a huge shock after the music giant’s internal documents were made available to the public by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Although the documents were quickly made private, citing potential public impact, netizens quickly shared the legal details online.

Among the revelations was a strategic sketch involving HYBE’s girl groups, which proposed a plan to phase out NewJeans. The documents indicated that with the addition of ILLIT to the label’s roster, along with NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM, the groups had been collectively branded as “NEW-IL-LE.” A Koreaboo report said: “When different communities started using ‘HYBE’s new -ILL-LE’ to refer to NewJeans, ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM, people started mentioning ILLIT more.” It added: “Right now, it may be necessary to tie LE SSERAFIM with BLACKPINK, aespa and IVE in the girl group category as million sellers in the first week of sales and separate them from the fourth generation. We were tormented by the term New-ILL-LE for a few days, but we can just throw away the ‘New’ and start a whole new thing.”

This acronym gained traction across digital platforms to celebrate the latest generation of girl group idols. However, the leaked plans revealed an intention to remove “NEW” from the acronym, instead placing LE SSERAFIM as part of a new million-selling girl group category, marking them as HYBE’s elite. The goal seemed to be to raise LE SSERAFIM’s prominence while subtly diminishing NewJean’s role.The leak sparked widespread outrage online, especially given HYBE’s recent controversies. One user commented: “This is unbelievable. We always suspected HYBE’s plans with NewJeans, and now we have proof.” Another posted on X, “One day K-pop will recognize the efforts of Hanni, NewJeans and their team.

HYBE has shifted focus from music enjoyment to fighting for streams, views and sales.” A third user added, “Bang and HYBE are K-pop’s seven deadly sins,” while another expressed, “NewJeans fought hard to defend their place in the company. Since 2023, they’ve been standing up for their careers against plans to replace them .”