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Kang Seong-hee has resigned as CEO of South Korean agency SPIRE Entertainment. She was discredited last month after footage emerged showing her verbally and physically assaulting members of K-pop group OMEGA X during their US tour.
Last month, a striking story was unleashed in the The world of K-pop. Video fragments appeared in which it was seen that the members of K-pop group OMEGA X were verbally abused and pushed by their CEO Kang Seong-hee. Subsequently, the 11 band members were left behind in the United States while their CEO and other staff returned to South Korea.
OMEGA X
OMEGA X is a relatively young boy band. The eleven-member group debuted last year with the song let’s go. This month, they traveled to the United States for the first time for their “Stand Up!” tour. But at the end of their tour, things went wrong.
On October 23, fans shared on social media that they saw the band in their hotel lobby. They saw SPIRE Entertainment CEO Kang Seong-hee scolding and beating the members. A fan also shared the sound fragment, on which the screams could clearly be heard. At the end of the fragment you can also hear a knock, after which you also hear someone crying.
Listen to the fragment here:
Pictures
A day after the fan’s audio clip was shared, the South Korean media SBS News with new pictures. The footage, taken after OMEGA X’s concert in Los Angeles, shows frontman Jae-han struggling. He says he doesn’t feel well and he can’t stand. But this is not accepted by the CEO. She shouts, “Do you think you losers can be loved by people?”
Then she speaks personally to Jae-han, who is sitting on the ground in the meantime. “Are you so tired, Kim Jae-han? If you’re still sick, you should quit being a singer.” When another band member takes Jae-han’s place and says he’s really sick, she also yells at him that he’s just playing. a following fragment, the group can be seen in the lobby of their hotel. There, Kang is still yelling at Jae-han, who indicates that he has a feeling that he is going to pass out. As he does, Kang pulls hard on his Col, causing the singer to fall to the ground, and is then seen in tears as he needs support to get on the elevator.
Watch footage of the incident here (English subtitles available):
Left in Los Angeles
Later, new facts followed. SBS News shared that all eleven band members were stranded at the Los Angeles airport. Their tickets to return to Seoul in South Korea had been canceled by their agency. While the staff and CEO went home, the eleven members had to return to Korea on their own.
With the help of their parents, they were finally able to book tickets to return home. On October 25, news broke that they were back in Seoul.
Agency: “Misunderstanding”
Initially, Kang Seong-hee said over the phone that the sound clips were shared by enemies of the agency who wanted to spread fake news. But after footage also emerged, an official statement about the incident followed. Everything was described as “a misunderstanding”.
In the press release published by the site Sports Chosunthe agency writes: “We would like to apologize for raising concerns about what happened. The images that emerged took place at the end of the tour which began in Guadalajara, Mexico on the 16th September and wrapped up in Los Angeles on October 22. At the time, the OMEGA X members were chatting with the staff about their hard work so far and discussing plans for the future. an altercation broke out in which everyone, due to their fatigue, quickly became emotional and raised their voices.
The agency then indicated that everything had been discussed in the meantime and that everyone agreed to continue working together in mutual respect.
OMEGA X Statement
The eleven members of the group recently opened their own account on Instagram. This account is completely separate from their agency, which allowed them to share their side of the story. The group shared a photo of their hands with the following statement in the caption. “Hello, we have created this account to thank our fans and the people who have supported us. Through this route, we can inform you from our own mouth about our current situation.
“Under pressure from SPIRE Entertainment, we had to sign a document stating that we are not allowed to post on social media without consulting the agency. If we did, there would be penalties. Therefore, we ask you to understand that it took a while before we could talk to you. While we had some happy times when we started as a band, we also had a lot of painful times. When those times became known to the around the world, we were afraid that everything we had achieved would go up in smoke, yet we decided to put our fears behind us and gather our courage.
“Do not give up”
“Our band was a second chance for our 11 members, who came together after hard times and refused to give up on their dreams,” the statement continued. With this, the members of OMEGA X refer to the fact that they all come from former K-pop groups, which quickly broke up. This made OMEGA X a second chance for all of them to succeed.
“The only thing that gave us the strength not to give up on our dreams was our fans who waited for us, believed in us and encouraged us. Thanks to our fans, we have been able to continue for the past two years. There were days when we received such unwarranted treatment from our agency that we cried. But then we drew strength from remembering our fans cheering and reading their messages and we could still ourselves. fall asleep
“Just as we have done so far, we intend to pursue our dreams to the end. We want to be in front of our fans again with great music and performances. Our eleven members, who share all the same dream and our fans who share our dream, are the most precious thing in our lives and we never want to lose them. Once again, we apologize for the delay in this update and thank you for read our sincere feelings. It took a lot of courage for us to share this.
Check out OMEGA X’s post here:
CEO resignation
A day after the group’s own statement, there was another update from SPIRE Entertainment. In it, the agency apologized to OMEGA X members, their family members and fans, and “all who felt hurt by the news.” “SPIRE Entertainment takes full responsibility and would like to make it known that the CEO responsible for this matter has resigned. We would also like to apologize for not responding properly and disappointing many fans as we have not provided enough information about the situation.
“We will take all your advice and comments into consideration and do our best to prevent such things from happening again. In addition, we now want to focus on creating a better environment for members so that they can focus on their activities as an artist. We hope you will continue to support OMEGA X and promise that we will do our best to come back with better news.
