NewJeans’ choreographers voice frustration over ILLIT's plagiarism allegations

The controversy surrounding alleged plagiarism in the K-pop industry has reached a boiling point, with NewJeans' choreographers expressing their frustration and disappointment amidst the ongoing controversy involving ILLIT.
ADOR’s performance director, Kim Eun-joo, who contributed to the choreographies of hit songs like ‘Attention’ and ‘Hype Boy’, took to her social media platform on May 13 to voice her concerns.In a post that has since garnered attention from fans and industry insiders alike, she exclaimed, “Huh? Is this real? Even the choreography for a CF? I’ve been holding myself back for a long time. It isn’t right to call this a coincidence, is it?” She continued, “Yes, there can be similarities. However, if you use the choreography as a reference, you should at least modify it a little bit. This is like copy and paste”, as reported by Kbizoom.
Kim Eun-joo's sentiments were echoed by Black Q, also known as Kim Young-hoo, ADOR’s performance director and the mastermind behind choreographies for tracks such as ‘Cookie’, ‘OMG’, and ‘Super Shy’. Black Q expressed his disbelief, stating, “Eh? I’ve been holding back my suspicions, but I didn’t know they would even copy the CF choreography”. He further shared, “The process that someone went through to show up in this way must have never been easy”.
While neither choreographer explicitly mentioned ILLIT in their posts, their references to ‘CF choreography’ left little doubt as to the target of their frustration. ILLIT, a girl group embroiled in a plagiarism controversy, has been accused multiple times of replicating choreographies originally crafted by NewJeans.
The latest wave of allegations centers around ILLIT's follow-up song ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’, with some alleging striking similarities between its choreography and that featured in a McDonald’s CF video associated with NewJeans. This isn't the first time ILLIT has faced such accusations; their debut song ‘Magnetic’ also drew comparisons to NewJeans' ‘Ditto’ and ‘Attention’. Moreover, ILLIT also replicated several movements from NewJeans's 'OMG' choreography.
The ongoing controversy has sparked a wave of support for NewJeans' choreographers from fans and netizens alike. Many have taken to social media to condemn the alleged plagiarism, with comments ranging from, “Copying the CF choreography. Isn’t it too much?” to “This is the first time I’ve seen someone copy the killing part like that”.