ADOR announced that it has terminated its exclusive contract with NewJeans member Danielle. It said Hanni has confirmed her return to ADOR, and that discussions are underway with Minji. As a result, a five-member full-lineup return for NewJeans has fallen through. NewJeans is expected to make a comeback as a four-member groupHanni, Minji, Haerin, and Hyein.

On the 29th, ADOR stated in a position statement, “In Danielle’s case, we determined it would be difficult to continue together as a NewJeans member and as an ADOR artist, so today we notified her of the termination of her exclusive contract.”

ADOR said, “We intend to hold legally accountable one member of Danielle’s family and former CEO Min Hee-jin, who bear significant responsibility for causing this dispute and for NewJeans’ departure and delayed return.” An ADOR representative told the Kyunghyang Shinmun that “we also intend to hold Danielle herself responsible for causing the grounds for contract termination.”

Regarding Hanni, who testified about ‘workplace bullying’ during the National Assembly’s audit on October 15, it said, “We held in-depth conversations over a long period. We reviewed past events and took time to view matters objectively. After candid discussions, Hanni decided to respect the court’s ruling and to continue with ADOR.” It added, “Minji is also continuing discussions to broaden mutual understanding with ADOR.”

ADOR said, “Through the conversations, we learned that the members had for a long time continuously heard distorted and biased information, which led to many misunderstandings about the company and even to disputes,” and that “we agreed that, even if it takes time, it is necessary to fully clear up the misunderstandings based on accurate facts.” It also said it plans to arrange a public forum to address various controversies that arose during the dispute and is considering the timing and format.

On the 12th of last month, after Hyein and Haerin announced their return to ADOR, about three hours later Minji, Hanni, and Danielle also expressed their intention to return, leading to expectations that all NewJeans members would make a comeback. However, Danielle’s contract termination has made a five-member return unlikely.

Some suggest that ADOR’s move to single out only Danielle for expulsion in order to assign blame amounts to a kind of ‘scapegoating’. Earlier, on the 15th of last month, former CEO Min released a statement saying, “NewJeans is complete only when there are five,” prompting analysis that she may have anticipated this situation.