Kim Seong-ju, chairman of the National Pension Service, said in a social media post on the morning of March 18 that the agency’s International Pension Support Center was briefly overwhelmed after its contact information spread online.
The backlash began after HYBE subsidiary Belift Lab announced on March 10 that Heeseung would leave the group and pursue solo activities. Some overseas fans, opposing the decision, organized efforts to pressure the pension fund as a key HYBE investor to push for a reversal.
Posts on X, formerly Twitter, and other platforms circulated the center’s phone number, urging users to “make things difficult” for the pension fund and to demand answers on whether it had been notified in advance and whether it understood potential losses in market value.
As a result, the center received a surge of calls from overseas last week, temporarily disrupting operations. Kim said about 1,500 emails arrived in just two hours.
“The International Pension Support Center provides pension counseling in multiple languages, including English, Chinese and Japanese, for foreign workers in Korea and Koreans living abroad,” Kim wrote, adding that people who urgently needed pension assistance were inconvenienced.
Kim said the National Pension Service is a long-term investor managing retirement funds and invests in many companies worldwide, but does not intervene in individual firms’ management or personnel matters. “Of course, we have no authority to be involved in the formation of a K-pop group or its membership,” he said.
He added that while the incident spread through social media as a “happening,” it prompted reflection on the pension fund’s public role, and he pledged to stay focused on managing citizens’ assets in a stable manner.
Belift Lab has said Heeseung will continue as a solo artist under the label, including plans such as releasing a personal album. The company faces continued pushback from parts of the global fan base.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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