Should NewJeans advance to USA this autumn or not? 15
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Yes. Strike when it is hot (7) 47%
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No, NewJeans first has to pacify K-O-R-E-A (8) 53%
After its glaring successes in the early stage of the Pacific War, the Japanese high command contemplated two strategies.
One strategy was to go around Ceylon, go to the Red Sea and close the Suez Canal, allowing Rommel to enter Palestine and then Middle East and denying UK and USSR the oilfields in Iran and Caucasus.
The other one, the actual strategy taken, was to have a showdown with the US Navy, which ended up like this.
(Hiryu had perhaps the best Japanese naval commander of all, Yamaguchi Tamon, who chose to go down with the ship (since Tamon was so valuable the Minister of the Navy allowed him to escape, unlike all other Japanese commanders) since he realized the war against USA was unwinnable at that point.)
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NewJeans' successes in its first 5 months are so huge, it doesn't really have to be repeated here.
But that will probably create a new dilemma on Min Heejin's part.
She would probably have planned to conquer K-O-R-E-A in this year and maybe venture to other countries in 2024, but its success is too big for her to ignore now.
A lot of problems with KPop companies arise from the fact that its execs are too rigid, unable to deal with changing situations, which is why Lee Jieun, who owned her company 2020-2022 and had more or less a free hand over when she promoted, constantly defeated one KPop act after another and another.
It is likely that NewJeans has one more promo in Korea, although when, no one but Min Heejin knows.
She has two choices now -
The original plan would probably a comeback in September, to polish off IU and all other K-O-R-E-A-N competition, win all the grand prizes and land with a huge thunder in the West by 2024.
However, as we all know, who knows whether some new star will be discovered, like Billie Eilish or Olivia Rodrigo, this year to rob any chances NewJeans might have in the West?
There is certainly a lot of interest on NewJeans in the West, and having two members who can speak English by heart is a huge advantage its competitors do not have .
If the route to promote in the West earlier is taken, they will release their next album in May or June an advance to the West in around Sep - Oct of this year.
That will probably give a second chance to IU and her allies, but with the huge Western market in her grasp Min Heejin might allow IU to live, since a Western Success means Ador can deal with Edam in a future date.
But some are indeed showing their concern that going to the West without a firm K-O-R-E-A-N base will make it weaker from domestic attacks.
Again, the inability of KPop acts to abandon K-O-R-E-A altogether leads to confusing a lot of tactics. If they didn't have to worry about K-O-R-E-A none of these would be relevant.
Giving a respite to Lee Jieun might actually revive her. It is possible that she will end the relationship with Jongsuk, like what she did to Kiha after the Moon Lovers debacle, forego the 2023 promotion and engage NewJeans in a decisive showdown in early 2024, since if NewJeans goes to the West later this year Lee JIeun would not be avoiding them and would have enough time to regain her influence to force a decision. The very fact that NewJeans has silenced all of other 4th Gen rivals does also help Lee Jieun since now everyone has kind of agreed that only Lee Jieun has a shot against NewJeans.
Min Heejin will probably take all these variables into consideration. Given the experience of BTS, who forgot to finish off IU and lost K-O-R-E-A to her, which became the chief source of its end , Min Heejin will probably think twice before going to the West without finishing her greatest adversary, Lee Jieun, who defeated all of the acts Min Heejin was involved in SM, so Min Heejin will probably feel a personal rivalry to Lee Jieun which will probably influence Min's decision process.
