Everything and Anything

I mentioned this before but hybecels who love seeing their “faves” abused so they can get a sense of “ownership” over them jumped me, so I’ll say it again: K-Pop is modern slavery in EVERY sense of the word. Worse, it is CHILD SLAVERY. KG’s case against JYP Entertainment exposed a plethora of human rights violations and slavery-conditions. Forced work, even through injuries, complete control over body, opinions and even personality, 24/7 surveillance even in their own quarters, forced diet leading to health issues, complete neglect of physical and mental health problems originating from these conditions and more. The contract in itself violates international child labour laws on an intangible scale. “My body my choice” - not in K-Pop. But the most striking part apart from the forced labour is the basis of this entire system: debt bondage. In general: any “breach of contract” (in these cases even just dying your hair or not telling your agency when you visited the toilet), can result in astronomical and life-crushing financial fines, forcing the idols to “comply” with all the demands of the agency. Debt bondage is illegal per international law, through the ILO Forced Labour Convention No. 29 (1930) and the UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery (1956). Technically, it is also illegal in South Korea, e.g. Labor Standards Act (Article 7) and Criminal Act (Article 273, on human trafficking and exploitation). The Korean entertainment industry operates in a legal grey area, while debt bondage is outlawed as slavery, it argues that the K-Pop slave-contracts are “voluntary servitude”, which for some reason is legal in Korea - because idols are not considered workers. Let’s be clear on that, “voluntary servitude” is not legal in any civilised country, neither in the U.S. nor in Europe, even if the victim initially “consented”, because freedom from such bondage is a fundamental right that cannot be contracted away. Just because a victim consented to slavery doesn’t make them any less of a slave. In South Korea, if they change their mind after 3 years and decide they don’t want to continue being slaves, there is no way out. They are slaves. Keep in mind that we’re talking about 10-15 year olds “consenting” to being slaves. Even thinking about it makes me shudder. This is the reality in South Korea. In KG’s case, and most likely most K-Pop cases, it goes even further because her details show that the signing of the contract wasn’t even consented, it was coerced through a strict time-limit, presented in a different language and the assigned ”lawyer” never communicated with her. Which doesn’t just make it modern slavery but actual human trafficking. KG and JYPE settled, the main reason is most likely because the outcome of that case would have shown the massive human rights violations within the K-Pop industry. Keep in mind JYPE is considered the “most lenient” of the big 4 and this was in the U.S., with much stricter child labour laws. One can only imagine how awful and abhorrent the Korean contracts are. “If it’s that bad, why don’t they just leave?” That’s the thing about slavery and debt bondage - they can’t. Not even through legal means because South Korea’s system does not give them ANY worker rights. Meaning to find something that actually gives them the right to end their slave-contracts without massive penalties (again, debt-bondage), is basically impossible. Even in the handful of cases where idols actually managed to break free, it was technical issues that freed them, not human rights violations. In Loona’s case, it wasn’t the fact that they were in slave-contracts that ensured them never getting paid and only collecting more debt over time, it was because of their contracts being transferred to another country. It’s ridiculous. In the NewJeans case, not even CRIMES committed against them and human rights violations were enough for them to end their contracts. They weren’t even given the option of paying to get out, they were simply forced back against their will. The judge even acknowledged that: A supreme court verdict stated that forcing an idol to work against their will violates their personality rights (duh, that’s… slavery) but at the same time, he mentioned that in this case, forcing them back to work against their will… didn’t. What?? The entire verdict is so incomprehensible it’s not even funny anymore. After the verdict, HYBE/Ador showed just how deep this debt bondage is. After pledging in court to accept all five members back and supporting them to the fullest of their capabilities, they terminated Danielle’s contract and sued her in the single LARGEST civil lawsuit against an individual in South Korea’s history. Against a 20 year old, by the way. This sends a clear message: Debt bondage is not just legal, but also enforced in Korea. Fact is: Agencies can end an idol’s contract for thousands of different reasons and then sue them, but not even crimes are enough for an idol to end theirs. The outcome of this lawsuit will show if South Korea as a country is willing to adhere to international trafficking, anti-slavery and child labour laws, or if the country continues this abusive trend of letting companies operate above the law (even U.N. law). I humbly ask @ilo @ILO_EndSlavery and @UN @UNHumanRights to pay attention to this and reconsider the categorisation of slave-contracts within K-Pop. TL;DR: K-Pop contracts are modern slavery (and child slavery) due to universal debt bondage, industrial-scale human rights violations, forced labor and coercion through threats of astronomical debts and reputational ruin. The excuse that these contracts are signed voluntarily does not prevent a definition as slavery considering the coercion (as seen in KC’s case), the fact that they are signed by literal children and because freedom from such bondage is a fundamental right that cannot be contracted away.