[Update] KH's update on KARA situation from 02/14 - 02/18

2011.02.14

- According to The Seoul Central Court, the three member’ party has filed a lawsuit against DSP because of unreasonableness of the contract. “From January to June 2010, DSP’s revenue was 410 million won from the album, but they announced that the total cost of promotion was 390 million won, this amount of cost is clearly abnormal. While at the same time of Lupin promotion, KARA’s most popular time, DSP only paid to each member 860,000 won/6 months, equivalent to 140,000 won per month.”

- The 3 members’ representative further revealed, “After CEO Lee Hoyeon hospitalized in March last year, during the past 11 months, the members absolutely have not received services during activities like what the company had promised. In addition, regarding the group's oversea activities, the company also secretly signed with the management company in Japan without telling us about the terms of the contract. Even when Seungyeon injured her back last year, the group still had to work continuously without rest. And when promoting in Japan, the members thought that the company would assign managers who knows Japanese to accompany them, but in fact, the members have been neglected while being abroad.”

- DSP via the e-news said, “We have not heard anything about the lawsuit, we heard about it just now. We will discuss this situation in our company before giving our official stance.” They also added “Just like last time, this time the three members’ side did not inform us about this whole case beforehand. We are extremely upset.”

- Kara returned from Japan and the media followed them closely at the airport. There are reports said that the five members then gathered in a studio to continue filming for the upcoming single which will be released in Japan in March.

- About the information saying that Gyuri cried when talking about KARA, according to MyDaily, after attending the press conference and got back into the waiting room, as being asked "is the other members doing okay?", Gyuri did not respond since she has already answered in the press conference. A manager, who has been with KARA since their early days said, “Gyuri did not have the mood to eat or drink. She seems very tired.” At this time, Gyuri suddenly turned around, sighed and said “I wish everything was alright.” The title “Gyuri cried when talking about KARA” was used to attract viewers.


2011.02.15

- A Japanese E-news said, “UraKARA’s manager revealed that the shooting was proceeding smoothly. Currently KARA have finished filming for 7/12 episodes, and are planning to film 2 or 3 more episodes in Japan.”

- After the discussion, DSP has announced its stance “issue of dividing the profit claimed by the side of the 3 members is completely distorted. DSP Media paid according to what was agreed on the profit generated up to the current time. The details have to wait for a clear confirmation from the law.”

- Hankooki published the exclusive interview with the parents of three members.

Parents of the three members agreed to have an interview all together for the first time all because the piled up misunderstandings these past couple days. They emphasized that this was not about money matters. They also explained the process of making them lose confidence with the management company. And as parents, they obviously only want the best for their children. However, the company’s process of auditing is not transparent; this is the key issue which raises the issue.

Nicole’s mother said, “Up to September of last year, we had not once talked with companies about anything at all. And when we wanted to know something, we just asked something like “What are the kids doing?” but absolutely not "How much do the kids make?” At this time, the company kept saying, “Please trust us and leave them for us.” But in December of last year, when we asked for and received the paper works/account information, we could detect at least 20 errors. So we asked again if those 20 terms are mistaken but the management company rejected it. DSP replied, “It seems like the process of providing information back and forth has made the data become not as good as expected. However, we have provided everything that the parents requested. There is absolutely no problem with the account paperwork.”

01. Lack of professionalism
The parents have gradually lost faith in Management Company, among other reasons, what makes the parents worry the most professionalism. Since the key figures such as CEO of DSP Lee Hoyeon hospitalized in March of last year and Chief Gil Jonghwa split from DSP to have an independent company, gaps in business began to appear.

Kang Jiyoung’s parents told that the company lacked of a specific management system for the members. "When Jiyoungie asked ‘what are we doing today?’ they always answered her, 'I don’t know', isn’t that too strange? The managers also got changed frequently. They should have treated the kids well so that the two sides can collaborate in the long term, but this arises the problem of professionalism.”

However DSP thinks that they have absolutely no flaws. An obvious example is that they have succeeded in bringing KARA to Japan and becoming one of representative idols. The parents fully accredited the decision to bring KARA to Japan and the results that DSP has achieved. However, DSP Media completely absorbed in activities directed by Universal and neglected domestic activities.

Kang Jiyoung’s parents continued, “We will do our best for the kids to continue to work together. We only hope that the company will seriously invite experts to expand the kids' future. At the same time, the staff will work in a clear/transparent system. We are also unsure how the discussion will process but this is our priority at the moment. The kids also wanted the group's activities to have a certain aspect.”

02. Relationship has been damaged
When things like losing faith and lacking of professionalism were slowly found, eventually what left were only the relationship and previous affections toward each other. And on the stance of the parent, conflicts arising during inspection of paper works make them not trust the company anymore. At the same time, parents also doubts about the relationship and the cost calculation between the DSP Media and DSP Japan. The parents are unhappy and do not believe in DSP mostly because of not giving them clear explanations instead of the unreasonable profit distribution.

The management company was not pleased when the parent began their research. Misunderstandings were growing, as well as emotional harms. The parents have repeatedly nodded while listening to journalists pointing out different plan for each day between two parties. This is not a legal issue but a matter of relationship between the two sides.

Han Seungyeon parents express their opinions, “When CEO Lee Hoyeon was in power, we fully believed and entrusted everything to him. We also did not consider the trivial matters. Eventually things got pushed to the edge of a cliff like this. "
At the moment, the three parents cannot trust in the management company even for the smallest thing.

Yoo's note: since the beginning of KARA’s incident, Hankooki has been one of the rare sites which do not post exaggerated articles to attract viewers. It is also the only site which often has exclusive interviews with the parents of the three members.



2011.02.16

- Seungyeon went to Japan alone with a DSP’s manager.

-Mr. Tae Jinah, the chairman of KSA, said that he had met and talked with the parents of the three members as well as DSP. KSA listened to the dissatisfactions from the three members’ side and deliver those to DSP Media. Today he will get the answers from the three members’ side about what have been discussed.

-Articles about Seungyeon’s father stating that the leader was irresponsible in an interview with a Japanese TV Station have surfaced and Seungyeon’s father has been heavily criticized. (public opinion in South Korea, except the majority of Kamilias, has always sided with Gyuri right from the start of the incident [Gyuri under supports as a member of KARA, and not related to DSP]. They argue that Gyuri is being isolated and really pathetic.) In fact, Seungyeon’s father has just used the word "leader" but absolutely no reference to the name of Gyuri. The inference from the word "leader" in the statement to "Gyuri" was completely created by the press. Here is a verbatim statement of Seungyeon’s father: “We were planning to reconsider many things after the proposal, but their leader seems to be quite irresponsible. Therefore, all the information has not been transferred smoothly until today,..” (from SBS TV Entertanment Midnight). What is the truth behind this controversy? Through a phone call with Edaily today, Seungyeon’s father, Mr. Han Jongchil, has expressed, “there is a small misunderstanding here. In the interview with the Japanese TV station, it’s true that I have mentioned about leader Gyuri, however I did not have intention to blame Gyuri on this issue.” He further added, “In every organization, a leader is the person who listens to opinions of its members and then makes recommendations to the company, so even in a small group, it still needs to have a leader. However, while the discontent of members toward the management company is rising day by day, Gyuri could not carry out her role well. I'm just saying it because it is a regretful matter, absolutely did not intend to blame it on Gyuri.”

- But that was what the press has reported, Jiyoung’s father have given a completely different answer.
When SBS asked Jiyoung’s father through a phone call: “Is it true that Seungyeon’s father wanted to suggest that Gyuri was the problem?" he replied, “Certainly not. The use of the word "leader" here is obviously not appropriate but actually, we normally call the current CEO (of DSP) ‘leader.’ Saying that the leader was being irresponsible refers to that person being irresponsible. Seungyeonie’s father had a lot of things to take care of so you could easily see that he was exhausted, with his head bent down and couldn’t express his thoughts fluently.”

- Also today, a close person of Gyuri revealed, “Gyuri looks very strong, but her inside is completely different from this image, she is still a child. I often saw Gyuri being tired when trying to fulfill the leader position.” This person added, “When there is no schedule, Gyuri mostly stays at home. She almost cut off all contact with the outside world.”


2011.02.17

- The four members: Gyuri, Hara, Nicole, Jiyoung were on their way to Japan and continued to be surrounded by the media/reporters at the airport. Photos of the members holding hands and protecting each other from the media are truly a beautiful image.

- Today, it was the first time that DSP had a defense lawyer spoken on their behalves. Mr. Im Sanghyuk, from Sejong, who also was JYJ’s lawyer in the case of DBSK and SM Entertainment, said "The claim of three members saying that each person received only 860,000 won is untrue. During that time, our side has paid for them a total of 100 million won (20 million won for each member)"

- On Feb 17, the side of 3 members has also changed lawyer from Landmark to Mr. Kim Jinwook, who was the defense lawyer for former Super Junior’s member, Hankyung, in the case with SM Entertainment.

- Following the incident of Seungyeon’s father, the criticisms of Jiyoung’s father’s answers in an interview on Japanese TV also got brought up on Feb 16. Netizens interpret from what has been said claim that it’s out all because of money. So what did Jiyoung’s father say? "The total profit earned from the period of Lupin promotion is around 400 million won but after accounting for promotion costs, only few hundred thousand won left."; "Jiyoungie was very upset. If the management company has done something wrong, they should say sorry; but instead they claimed to do the right thing and never once apologized. If we cannot solve the problem by talking, we need to use legal action.” Jiyoung’s father in fact just repeated what was written in the lawsuit, so why should he be criticized?

- The chairman of KSA, Tae Jinah, said that the report saying the three members refused mediation is completely unfounded. They only postpone the time to answer for a few days.


2011.02.18

- Some E-news report that KARA has made fans disappointed and that fans were angry and saying that they would rather KARA to break up if the situation continues like this. However, in reality only 70 people have involved in the campaign for KARA’s disbandment in 2 days. As soon as the real Kamilias know about this, they have been carried out at the campaign against KARA’s disbandment. Later, the KARA’s disbandment campaign was removed. KARA’s fanclub said that this was an act of sabotage of the anti-fans.

- Today, KSA’s chairman, Mr. Tae Jinah, has received feedbacks from the three members. He said, "We are in the process of further discussion. Currently we cannot announce the details, but the result looks very promising/bright. Reconciling process is also successful; it most likely will be good news. Lawyers on both sides will sit down and talk to each other on Feb 19 as the earliest. Beside me, the participants includes lawyers of the three members DSP’s lawyers and chairman of KEPA. After further discussion with the parents of three members, we will determine the meeting date. Please wait for us a little longer. "

There is no news on Feb 19th.


Collected from various sources
by Yoo + hasomy @karaholic
take.out.with.full.credit