Katseye member’s hiatus: Are K-pop's methods partly to blame?

Manon announces break for health reasons, but doubts surface among fans

Katseye (Hybe America)

Katseye member Manon has gone on an indefinite break for health reasons, reigniting online debate over the challenges of applying K-pop practices outside of Korea.

Hybe and Geffen girl group announced in a Weverse notice Saturday that the 23-year-old would temporarily suspend activities with Katseye.

“After open and thoughtful conversations together, we are sharing that Manon will be taking a temporary hiatus from group activities to focus on her health and wellbeing,” the agency said.

The statement did not say what the health issues were or when she would return. When contacted by The Korea Herald, the agency said it could not offer further details.

Manon has previously spoken about the pressures she and her bandmates have faced since Katseye's debut in June 2024. In a November interview, the group revealed it had received thousands of online messages containing death threats and harassment.

Manon described the experience as “very terrorizing on the mind.”

However, industry insiders point out that other members suffered the same harassment, and it is difficult to know whether online harassment alone prompted her hiatus.

Fans have begun to speculate online. One post alleged “systemic mistreatment and racism faced by Black members in girl groups,” specifically referencing Manon and stating, “another Black girl subjected to racism and label mistreatment yet again.”

Manon briefly “liked” the post before removing the interaction, further fueling speculation, but she did not publicly address the incident. She did, however, take to Weverse shortly after the announcement to assure fans that she was "healthy" and "trusting the bigger picture."

The remarks led some fans to question whether her hiatus was solely health-related.

It is not uncommon for K-pop stars to take breaks for health reasons. Twice’s Dahyun announced a hiatus in February after suffering an ankle fracture, while Monsta X’s I.M paused activities last July due to back pain. In those cases, agencies provided relatively clear medical reasons and general recovery timelines.

An entertainment industry official suggested the situation may reflect growing pains in applying the K-pop training system to global groups.

“There are established methods and standards that we have long followed in K-pop. Those systems have strengths, but they can also be perceived as drawbacks,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “Artists participating in this localized model are also experiencing it for the first time. And since Katseye members come from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds, their values and expectations may differ.”

Localized groups operate under the labor laws of their respective countries. Even within the same K-pop framework, rehearsal hours and promotional schedules can vary depending on whether activities are based in Korea, Japan or the United States.

Still, physically demanding training routines and tightly packed back-to-back promotional cycles remain common across the industry.

Similar friction has surfaced in other localized K-pop projects. KG, formerly of JYP Entertainment’s US-based girl group VCHA, left the group last year, citing abuse and an unhealthy work environment. The group was later reorganized and rebranded as Girlset.

Music critic Lim Hee-yun pointed to what he described as relatively low sensitivity to youth labor rights as one structural factor behind K-pop’s rapid rise — a dynamic that may be harder for non-Korean artists to accept.

“In Korea, there is a widely accepted social mindset that intense, almost Spartan-style effort during one’s teenage years will eventually be rewarded,” Lim said. “That mentality has, in some ways, carried over into K-pop. But for foreign trainees or artists who are not accustomed to that environment, it can be difficult to adapt.”

He added that while localization strategies have become possible because K-pop’s formula is now globally recognized and aspirational, “the reality may feel quite different once you are actually inside the system.”