[Sports Kyunghyang] Kang Dong-won, CL, and others’ mass ‘deferred prosecution’ ending… Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s ‘amnesty’ backlash

Sports Kyunghyang report | Managing Attorney No Jong-eon, Law Firm Jonjae

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Sports Kyunghyang reported on the case in which entertainers’ one-person agencies, suspected of operating illegally by failing to register as popular culture and arts planning businesses, were collectively given deferred prosecution. Managing Attorney No Jong-eon of Law Firm Jonjae stated its position as the legal representative for singer Ok Joo-hyun.

Failure to register one-person agencies, mass deferred prosecution

The Uijeongbu District Prosecutors’ Office, Namyangju Branch, and the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office uniformly decided to suspend prosecution for singer Ok Joo-hyun (title role), the representative of actor Kang Dong-won’s agency (AA Group), singer CL (Berry Cherry), and others who operated one-person agencies without registering as planning businesses. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office also issued a deferred prosecution disposition to the representative of singer Song Ga-in’s agency.

The mandatory registration of planning businesses under the Act on the Development of the Popular Culture and Arts Industry had been fully implemented since July 2014, but the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism had in effect not managed it for nearly 10 years. After the issue was brought to light by this paper’s report in September 2025, the ministry belatedly granted a guidance period until December 31, 2025. In a situation where the ministry in charge has effectively acknowledged administrative errors and a lack of publicity for the regulations, it is interpreted that prosecutors have found it difficult to regard this as an intentional illegal act and punish it severely.

Attorney No Jong-eon — "The Ok Joo-hyun case is a simple administrative omission; it must be distinguished from intentional non-registration"

Attorney No Jong-eon said, "In Ok Joo-hyun’s case, although she completed the required training, the registration was omitted due to a staff member’s inexperience in handling the work, so the factual circumstances are completely different from prior cases of intentional non-registration in which there was an attempt to deliberately evade the law," and added, "This case, which is merely an administrative omission, must be clearly distinguished from other matters that involved a strong degree of intent."

Controversy over fairness and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s position

Within and outside the entertainment industry, controversy over fairness is being raised. This is because there have been cases in the past where one-person agencies operated without registration and were fined tens of millions of won. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "The guidance period is an administrative measure intended to encourage voluntary registration, and it does not exempt illegal acts or waive punishment."