Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Yesterday, OMEGA X‘s company, IPQ, released a statement refuting allegations of sexual assault made against member Hwichan by former SPIRE Entertainment CEO Kang Seong Hee. While what she alleges deserves to be treated seriously, given her previous behavior with the members and her own sexual assault allegations, IPQ’s explanation of events seemed reasonable (read about their abuse controversy here).
Adding on to their explanation, IPQ released a detailed and lengthy statement today, going point-by-point to push back against SPIRE’s narrative, including providing text messages and other evidence to back their version of events.
To start, they address the circumstances of the video that was revealed, saying it was a forced gathering.
1. The drinking party revealed in the CCTV was not to relieve the worries of the members who were issued military enlistment warrants but was forced by the high-ranking executives in the company as usual.
According to SPIRE Entertainment’s claim, on July 11, 2022, member Hwichan attended a drinking party to express his worries about military enlistment and requested a separate meeting with former CEO Kang Sung Hee. However, contrary to the claim, Hwichan’s military enlistment warrant was actually issued on August 1, 2022, and he was notified of his mid-September enlistment date. The day of the drinking party was before the warrant was even issued. Saying that they were there to resolve his “post-warrant worries” proves that the claim is false.
The drinking party that started on the evening of July 10 was not to listen to the members’ worries but was forced to console Kang Sung Hee, who was upset saying that the members did not understand her efforts to increase album sales after its release. Also, during the drinking party that continued until dawn on July 11, it can be confirmed through the attached materials below that CEO Hwang Sung Woo showed actions of waking up members who were sleeping in the dorm to make them drink, proving that it was not a place to just listen to the members’ worries.
Member 1: Sebin is sleeping
Member 2: Ok
Member 3: How about CEO Kang?
Member 2: We’re by the GS (convenience store)
Member 1: CEO Kang is talking to Hwichan right now
Member 4: CEO Kang is speaking with Hwichan at the company.
Member 1: Oh no haha
Member 5: Chairman is saying that he will wake everyone up and make them drink?
Member 1: Ah. Go to sleep everyone. I will go myself today.
They go on to state that these forced gatherings were nothing new, and that the July 11th incident in question was an example of what the members were subjected to.
2. We inform you about the frequent drinking parties forced by senior executives, continuous verbal abuse and physical assault, gaslighting, demands for affectionate expressions and physical contact, and coercive attitudes toward the members.
As mentioned above, Kang Sung Hee and Hwang Sung Woo forced the members to attend drinking parties several times during their contract period. In addition, the members experienced severe psychological stress due to years of continuous gaslighting and coercive behavior. They were filled with fear of retaliation, such as being excluded from album activities or facing restrictions on styling and promotions, if they avoided excessive demands of affectionate expressions and physical contact from Kang Sung Hee or did not comply obediently with her demands.
We want to inform you about the situation on July 11 within this atmosphere.
On July 11, which the CCTV footage was revealed of, despite it being past 2 a.m., Hwang Sung Woo insisted on also drinking with the members who were resting or sleeping at the dorm, even continuing the forced drinking session at the dorm. SPIRE Entertainment explained this as an occasion to listen to Hwichan’s concerns about his enlistment, but it makes no sense that Hwichan shared concerns ahead of his enlistment when his warrant had not even been issued yet. In addition, according to the testimonies of the members and the former manager who were present at the time, it was Kang Sung Hee who demanded a private meeting with Hwichan.
After the staff and other members excluding Hwichan left, Kang Sung Hee demanded excessive affectionate expressions and physical contact from Hwichan, and as no one else was present, Hwichan had no choice to obey as he was fearful of the threatening words and verbal abuse or physical assault that would occur if he did not comply. Despite SPIRE Entertainment referring to this as “indecent act by compulsion,” the revealed CCTV footage does not show any signs of compulsion in Hwichan’s actions nor does it show refusal from the other individual. It can be seen [through this footage] that there were demands by Kang Sung Hee who regularly forced affectionate expressions and physical contact and that there were no expressions of refusal or signs of compulsion because they are demands she made herself. After being coerced to make physical contact several times, Hwichan fell asleep while intoxicated. Kang Sung Hee then took a photo of Hwichan sleeping and even sent it to the manager and dissuaded the manager who said they would pick Hwichan up, saying that she would take him personally, which is an action that contradicts the narrative of her being a victim of his “indecent act by compulsion.”
Nevertheless, even after Hwichan fell asleep, Kang Sung Hee continued to yell that he wake up and persisted in demanding affectionate gestures and physical contact, maintaining a coercive attitude. Feeling overwhelmed by fear and pressure due to prolonged gaslighting as well as a sense of shame in having to carry out excessive physical contact with a company executive of similar age to his parents, Hwichan fled to the first floor of the company building. However, in the process, he tripped on the stairs, sustaining injuries and being unable to stand back up. Kang Sung Hee then approached Hwichan, who was lying on the ground beneath the stairs unable to move, and performed strange actions including stepping on his head and dancing in front of him. Hwichan, filled with fear, used all of his effort and escaped to the first-floor restroom, but Kang Sung Hee continued following him and shouting, causing him mental and physical distress.
This situation continued until past 5 a.m., and the former manager and member Kevin, who were worried about Hwichan not returning home until late after the drinking party started, returned to the company around 5:45 a.m. and found Kang Sung Hee, who was taking a picture of herself in front of the mirror in the first floor lobby of the company building, and Hwichan, who was hiding in the bathroom with the door locked. The photo of Kang Sung Hee that she took herself in front of the mirror at the time can also be checked through a post uploaded on her Facebook account.
Furthermore, they reject the allegation that OMEGA X made any plans to leave based on this incident, or that they did any type of illegal recording as a result.
3. It is completely false that the members began to lose trust in the agency starting with the incident on July 11, 2022 and that they recorded audio and filmed illegally to create a pretext.
The verbal abuse, physical violence, coercive behavior, and demands for affectionate expressions toward OMEGA X members by Kang Sung Hee and Hwang Sung Woo were not filmed under a fabricated situation after a specific time but were prolonged instances of abuse of power as revealed several times through photos and videos. We possess numerous records of conversations between the members and Kang Sung Hee and Hwang Sung Woo which date back to before July 11, 2022, and please note that we plan to separately release the relevant data with additional evidence that has not been made public before. Please understand that this is cruel additional harm to treat the efforts made by 11 young individuals, who worked hard to not lose sight of their dreams after earning a precious second chance, to let the world know after withstanding the ensuing verbal abuse and assault for a long time as simply a “pretext” to leave the agency.
They conclude by explaining that the Jaehan assault case against Seong Hee has indeed been forwarded to the prosecution, and they call on SPIRE to provide the full CCTV footage from the day of the incident and the day following in order for everybody to get the full context of things.
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Again, while the nature of her allegation dictate that they should be taken seriously, IPQ’s explanation fits the former SPIRE CEO’s documented pattern of behavior. None of this is new, it’s been public for months, and now they’ve provided even more evidence for it.
Perhaps more will emerge, or the full video (if it’s ever revealed) will show something IPQ doesn’t anticipate, but at the moment it certainly looks like SPIRE revealed a specifically-edited, out-of-context video in a desperate attempt to turn public opinion somehow. And if it turns out that’s the case, it sucks especially bad that she’s gone this route considering the already toxic environment surrounding sexual crimes in Korea, especially given her position as an executive.
