Pledis Entertainment has released its final statement in regards to SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu bullying allegations.
On April 6, Pledis Entertainment confirmed Mingyu’s bullying allegations have been cleared up, they also added that he’d be returning to activities after taking a hiatus. They also shared a personal message from him.
Here is their full statement in English:
“Hello.
This is Pledis Entertainment.
We would like to provide our conclusive statement on the issue regarding Seventeen member Mingyu during his time in school.
During this entire process, we made sure that all of our actions were governed by a principle of careful verification of all facts while ensuring that no one involved experienced any unfairness or maltreatment. We communicated directly with the individuals who wrote postings regarding the artist to examine the facts, and we have issued statements correcting claims that were untrue or based on misunderstandings.
After issuing our previous statement, we were able to contact the person referred to as ‘B’ through the individual who posted about events that happened in middle school, and examined and verified the facts over a period of more than three weeks. While memories of events that transpired ten years ago inevitably differed, we worked hard to determine the facts that everyone could agree upon as truths.
The artist wished to talk to the individual involved either personally or over the phone, but we respected the person’s wishes not to be contacted by the artist and instead relayed his message. During the course of our conversation, we tried to go beyond discussing evidence or debating claims from third parties and instead worked on building an understanding and rapport. The artist explained that in middle school when friends around him were carrying on or joking he too laughed without particular thought. The artist asked the company to relay his message that while he had no recollection of the events told by the person involved or intended any mistreatment, if there was any action that was taken that caused distress then he was sincerely sorry. The person involved also said that he did not wish the artist to bear undue responsibility for events that happened in the past.
Both the individual and the artist do not wish to cause each other any more harm due to this issue. We would like to ask you to avoid unnecessary conjecture that may cause more distress to the person involved in this issue.
Contacting people from postings online and retracing the memories of many individuals to verify the facts of the issue required considerable time and effort. Due to the gravity of the issue, we approached each step with the utmost care. Please understand that some time was therefore needed before we could issue this final statement.”
Mingyu himself also said:
“I’m sorry to have made you worry. This experience has been trying for me as well. However, I also learned that regardless of my thoughts or my recollection of past events, it was still possible to cause distress to a person through unintended actions. It was also a chance to reflect on how I should conduct myself.
It is love from you, all fans, that enables me to do what I do, and I realized once again that I must behave with maturity to return the positive energy that I’ve received from you. I will ensure that I behave in the best way possible to make sure I can be by your side as long as I can.”
What are your thoughts on their statement?
