'Overseas trademark 100% JYP's … transfer to dedicated corporation not mandatory'

'Little need for state-led pop culture projects'

People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin. [Bae Hyun-jin's office]
People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin. [Bae Hyun-jin's office]

People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin renewed her criticism Monday of Phenomenon, a government-backed global K-pop festival, saying the state was committing hundreds of billions of won indefinitely while retaining zero equity in the project.

Bae made the remarks during an appearance on SBS Radio's Kim Tae-hyun's Politics Show. She said the contract had been structured so that the government could not participate in Phenomenon without the consent of JYP Entertainment and four other companies at the center of the project — JYP's approval in particular being required.

She added that while JYP had granted the government a 50 percent stake in the domestic business, any commercial use of the project's trademark would still require separate authorization from JYP.

Bae also said that the transfer of operations to a dedicated corporation — which Park Jin-young, co-chair of the Popular Culture Exchange Committee, had mentioned at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's national audit on Wednesday — was "not mandatory."

"The overseas trademark is 100 percent JYP's," she said. "The contract states that the transfer to a dedicated corporation would take place — as Chairman Park said at the audit — but even that is not an obligation."

Bae said there was no plan for how the dedicated corporation would be formed or operated. "This is essentially a blank-check budget," she said, "yet the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism already has the smallest budget of any ministry."

She also questioned the fundamental rationale for state-led pop culture ventures. "Popular culture and pop music are driven by trends," she said. "There is no country in the world where the state has taken the lead on this — I have never seen it. There is a basic question of whether government support is even the right approach."

Regarding Park's remark at the audit that private operators could earn more money by staging performances independently, Bae said Park had told her something different in a private conversation. "Chairman Park told me privately that it was actually difficult for the private sector to do this on its own, and that the state was needed," she said.

She then said, "I am not sure what circumstances explain the gap between what he said with a microphone in front of him and what he said without one."

On Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young's pledge at the national audit to renegotiate what he called an unfair contract, Bae said she would wait until the comprehensive audit before responding further.

"Many of the committee members are lawyers. We all looked at the contract and were stunned," she said. "There is no specified date for when it takes effect. The state bears only the obligation to put in the budget, while JYP holds all the rights — it is a one-sided contract."

She also noted that when the contract was signed, the ministry's own name was not written in. "When you sign a contract, don't both parties write down their details?" she said. "The Culture Ministry's seal is there, but the minister's name was not even written in."


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