K-pop girl group Loona postpones comeback indefinitely

Members of girl group Loona perform at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Aug. 23, 2022. [YONHAP]

Girl group Loona has postponed their comeback indefinitely after originally planning to release new music without member Chuu, according to its agency Blockberry Creative Thursday.

Blockberry Creative released a statement Thursday saying that it had decided a comeback was “meaningless” given the current situation of members not being completely “healed” from the controversy surrounding Chuu being expelled from the group.

“There is a lot of misunderstanding and false accusations surrounding the matter of payment for the members, but ultimately it is very regrettable and we feel apologetic toward our members for the delayed payment,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.

Loona was to make a comeback early next year, the first since expelling former member Chuu from the group in November.

Chuu was kicked out of the group by Loona’s agency in November after the singer became embroiled in legal disputes with Blockberry Creative since the beginning of the year. Chuu partially won a lawsuit to nullify her exclusive contract in March.

Blockberry Creative has claimed that Chuu has been verbally abusive and misused her fame against the staff. Chuu denied these allegations, and many of her fans have supported and defended her.

Loona debuted in 2018 with the EP “[+ +]” pronounced "plus plus." The group consists of members Haseul, Vivi, Yves, JinSoul, Kim Lip, Heejin, Hyunjin, Go Won, Choerry, Olivia Hye and Yeojin. It is known for hits "Hi High" (2018), "Why Not?" (2020) and "PTT (Paint The Town)" (2021).

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]