The chairman and CEO of South Korea’s National Pension Service has issued an official statement on an incident involving calls about Heeseung’s departure from ENHYPEN.
Last week, following the announcement that Heeseung would be leaving ENHYPEN and debuting as a solo artist, posts began spreading on social media urging fans to call and lodge complaints with the National Pension Service, a major shareholder in HYBE.
On March 18, National Pension Service chairman and CEO Kim Sung Joo stated in a post on Facebook that operations at its International Pension Support Center had been temporarily paralyzed last week due to a sudden flood of calls from overseas.
Explaining that the center provides pension-related assistance to foreign workers employed in Korea and Korean nationals working abroad, Kim Sung Joo noted, “Because of this incident, people calling the center with pension-related inquiries are said to have experienced significant inconvenience.”
He went on to emphasize, “Although [the National Pension Service] invests in countless companies in over 80 different countries around the world, it is not involved in the management or personnel decisions of individual companies. Naturally, it also has no involvement in the formation or member lineup of K-pop groups.”
Kim Sung Joo’s full statement is as follows:
Last week, operations at the National Pension Service’s International Pension Support Center were temporarily paralyzed by a sudden influx of international phone calls, and within just two hours, we received a flood of approximately 1,500 emails.
After looking into what happened, it turned out that a post had spread on social media urging international fans to call the National Pension Service, a major shareholder in HYBE, to protest the departure of a member from the K-pop group ENHYPEN.
A post on X [formerly Twitter] instructed [fans] to “protest to the National Pension Service, a major shareholder [in HYBE], and ask whether they were notified in advance by HYBE [about the departure] and if they are aware of the market value lost as a result of this decision.” The post also included a screenshot of the International Pension Support Center’s consultation hotline numbers.
The International Pension Support Center is the department in charge of providing pension-related assistance to foreign workers employed in Korea and Korean nationals working abroad.
It is a center where staff who speak a variety of languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese, provide guidance and support [to callers].
Because of this incident, people calling the center with pension-related inquiries are said to have experienced significant inconvenience.
The National Pension Service is a long-term investor entrusted with managing the public’s retirement funds. Although it invests in countless companies in over 80 different countries around the world, it is not involved in the management or personnel decisions of individual companies.
Naturally, it also has no involvement in the formation or member lineup of K-pop groups.
Although this was one incident that spread quickly on social media, it served as an opportunity to think once again about the role of the National Pension Service.
The National Pension Service will continue to stably manage the public’s precious retirement funds with a strong sense of duty about our social influence and responsibility in the future as well.
Meanwhile, ENHYPEN’s agency BELIFT LAB reaffirmed in a statement on March 15 that Heeseung would not be returning to the group.
Source (1)