IST Entertainment announce Yang Donghwa will not debut with ATBO due to ‘past misconduct’ + group is an interesting case

IST Entertainment have announced a change to the debut lineup of their upcoming boy group ATBO, as Yang Donghwa has been removed. In a statement, ISTE say they investigated allegations against the member, he made amends with the victims and is reflecting, and that they will move forward without him in the group.

The company released a statement in Korean, English, and Japanese.

For those who like me also didn’t know what was going on, apparently he had bullying allegations from middle school.

since a lot of y’all are confused, back when the origins first ep was out donghwa had rumors around about being a bully in middle school.
even tho the notice says not everything is as ppl painted it to be(because they were talking very poorly of donghwa), donghwa did give a hard+

— bee (@hyunjunator) June 13, 2022

Some people will never forgive for things like this, which is fine since it’s ultimately a personal choice on morality and punishment and what not, though I do feel like those who make amends and attempt to change deserve forgiveness (perhaps debuting later or whatever), if nothing else because if not it doesn’t really incentivize people to take responsibility and change. And ultimately humans are humans and will respond to incentives if not morality.

From a company perspective, I’m curious as to whether this and the group name change helps them in the long run in terms of initial negative press versus cutting out the potential stumbling blocks. Obviously ISTE is not a huge company with a guarantee for success either way, but K-pop fandom always talks about how companies should do background checks and listen to fans concerns, which they did here and it should be interesting to see the response now.