North West, the eldest daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, recently captured the internet’s attention during an Instagram Live session. When asked about K-pop, the 11-year-old quickly exclaimed, “We gotta save NewJeans.”
North West’s statement connects directly to the “Save NewJeans” sentiment among fans. This feeling grew during 2024 and 2025 when the group faced legal disputes with ADOR, a subsidiary of HYBE. All five members—Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein—originally announced plans to leave ADOR and then return to their former label.
At just 12 years old, North West is already a big name in pop culture. As the child of two of the world’s most famous celebrities, she frequently appears on her parents’ and aunt Kylie Jenner’s social media accounts.
In late 2024, all five members attempted to terminate their exclusive contracts with ADOR, citing mistreatment and miscommunications, and requested the return of their former creative director, Min Hee Jin. In October 2025, a South Korean court ruled that their contracts, valid until 2029, were enforceable.
After the ruling, the group gradually returned to ADOR. In November last year, Haerin and Hyein rejoined the label, followed by Hanni, Danielle, and Minji. In December, ADOR announced that Danielle’s contract was terminated and discussions with Minji were ongoing.
Danielle claimed to ‘fight till the very end’ to be part of NewJeans, but things did not go as planned with ADOR. Since her departure, fans have been campaigning ‘NewJeans is Five’ and even asked popular YouTuber MrBeast for help.
Despite the challenges, NewJeans is set to gradually resume activities, with the most concrete plans pointing to a comeback in the second half of 2026. Fans can expect a new album and potential tours in Japan and Korea.
Even during their nearly two-year hiatus, NewJeans’ music has remained highly popular. Their song “ETA” surpassed 400 million streams on Spotify, and the group’s total cumulative streams have exceeded five billion.