NewJeans' music video director to take legal action against ADOR

NewJeans' music video director Shin Woo-seok will take legal action against ADOR executives, accusing them of damaging his reputation with their constant "lies."

Newjeans in the music video for ″Ditto″ [ADOR]

NewJeans' music video director Shin Woo-seok will take legal action against ADOR executives, accusing them of damaging his reputation with their constant "lies."

“Since ADOR did not apologize, I will submit [evidence] to the court or release the recordings, emails and materials I have as needed and sue ADOR CEO Kim Ju-young and Vice CEO Lee Do-kyung for defamation,” Shin said on Instagram on Tuesday.

Shin made this announcement in a statement as a response to ADOR’s statement from Monday.

On Monday, ADOR said posting a video featuring NewJeans on Shin's YouTube channel, "Ban Heesoo," without ADOR's approval constitutes a breach and requested Shin to provide evidence of permission to use the videos. Additionally, the agency included a screen capture showing that they had received a complaint requesting the removal of the director's cut video from Shin's channel.

Shin, who is the head of the production company Dolphin Kidnapping and the director of NewJeans' music videos for "Ditto" and "ETA," reiterated that the director’s cut video in question was approved for uploading by all three involved parties, contradicting ADOR’s statement. He also accused the girl group's agency of involving innocent third parties in the dispute.

“Even the ending of the director’s cut video, which ADOR has been making an issue of, was agreed upon by all three companies at the time," Shin said. "Although there was a request for a partial tagline modification, there is no problem with uploading the video even now. But ADOR is dragging a third party into the dispute and causing damage,” Shin said.

Shin also criticized the agency for its sudden change of mind regarding the operation of his YouTube channel "Ban Heesoo."

“ADOR’s statement yesterday says that Dolphin Kidnapping is allowed to run the 'Ban Heesoo' channel, but that’s a blatant lie. Just a few days ago, ADOR was trying to appease me by offering to hand over the channel [back to me],” Shin said.

Previously on Sept. 4, the agency said it would do its best to “ensure that the deleted NewJeans content [from 'Ban Heesoo'] can be uploaded to ADOR's official channel in the future.”

Despite the ongoing dispute, Shin reopened the channel.

“I don’t want fans to suffer, and since ADOR does not take responsibility, I'm going to take responsibility and reopen the 'Ban Heesoo' channel," he said.

The channel has since reinstated 43 previously delisted videos as of Wednesday at 2 p.m.

The conflict between ADOR and Shin began on Sept. 2 when Shin announced that he had removed all content related to NewJeans from his social media and YouTube channel following a demand from ADOR.

All NewJeans-related videos were then deleted from the channel, where Shin had been sharing behind-the-scenes footage of NewJeans, including camcorder clips of the members.

After Shin's statement sparked heated discussion among fans, ADOR issued a statement stating that "ADOR only requested that Dolphin Kidnapping take down the director's cut video," and that it was the advertisers who requested the removal of the videos.

To find out more about NewJeans, visit Celeb Confirmed!

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]