Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Spire Entertainment recently tried to shrug off allegations of physical and verbal abuse of OMEGA X by the company’s CEO, responding that it was all some kind of misunderstanding. However, SBS has just released video evidence of CEO Kang Seong Hee abusing member Jaehan.
In the video, the CEO insults the group and then moves to berating Jaehan, who seemed to be having some kind of panic attack. When member Taedong tried to step in, the CEO continued yelling before grabbing Jaehan and seemingly pushing him down.
After finishing a post-performance dinner, Kang said to the OMEGA X members, “Why do you think XXs like you deserve to be loved by people? XXs who don’t know what it means to be loved are loved. I know how XXing calculated you are.” Kang yelled at member Jaehan, who was sitting down with symptoms of panic, saying, “Get up. If you get sick like this every day, stop being an idol. […] CEO Kang said, “I know how many times I fell. It hurts to death. I made it all night even if it hurts to death.” They continued to force Jaehan to stand up. “I know how many times I stumbled. I was so sick I could’ve died. Even though I was so sick I could’ve died, I worked all night.” It is reported that CEO Kang’s abusive language continued even after arriving at the hotel. When Taedong tried to move Jaehan, Kang shouted, “You all did this to me. When I was having such a hard time, did you take care of me?” Taedong defended by saying, “He’s on the verge of collapsing.” As he protested, Kang said, “I’ve already collapsed.” They then pulled Jaehan’s collar and knocked him down on the ground. He is then seen weeping as he rises back to his feet.
When SBS contacted the company about the video, Spire ran the same playbook of victimizing themselves and downplaying the incident.
SBS contacted Kang for a telephoned statement, where they denied the allegations of abuse, saying, “I never yelled at the members nor did I assault them. […] Both Jaehan and I collapsed. I was really sad, so I asked, ‘Did you guys protect me? Did you protect me when I was having such a hard time?'”
The video only legitimized the fan’s account and audio of the incident, as well as the non-fan’s witness report about the CEO verbally abusing OMEGA X before. Thus, I’m honestly not sure what the company is doing with this statement. She’s talking about the controversy like it was some kind of mutual combat situation and not just her abusing a person who was clearly in a fragile state.
The worrisome thing about all this comes when thinking about how it’s all going to play out, because unless the company is somehow shamed into releasing OMEGA X from their contracts, they’ll still have control over the group in this utterly toxic work environment. Hopefully it works out for OMEGA X in the end somehow, but it feels bleak at the moment.
Update
It has now been revealed that the OMEGA X members have made it back to Korea but were forced to pay for their own tickets and were indeed left stranded in America by their company.
Additionally, it says in the report that the CEO clashed with hotel security and that police were dispatched to the hotel twice. That tracks with a witness report that was recently posted regarding the CEO’s behavior at the hotel.
Another fan also recently posted a video from a few weeks ago of the CEO yelling at somebody, presumably event or group staff.
