"PROJECT 7" And "LOUD" Contestant Kim Jeongmin's Agency Apologizes For Underage Vaping

“PROJECT 7” and “LOUD” contestant Kim Jeongmin’s agency has issued a formal apology regarding his recent underage vaping controversy.

Earlier this month, someone posted a video of Kim Jeongmin, a Hi-Hat Entertainment trainee who appeared on the survival shows “LOUD” and “PROJECT 7,” walking down the street while using an e-cigarette.

Because Kim Jeongmin was born in 2007 and is currently a minor, the video led to criticism over his underage vaping after going viral online.

On April 15, Hi-Hat Entertainment released the following statement apologizing for the incident:

Hello. This is Hi-Hat Entertainment.

We sincerely apologize for the fact that, through his recent controversy, our trainee Kim Jeongmin has greatly hurt and worried the fans who are rooting for him.

We bow our heads in apology for the fact that, in order to check the details regarding the aspects of this controversy that we were unable to prevent in advance, we were unable to release a statement quickly.

We fully recognize that this incident resulted from insufficient trainee and artist management, and we are currently internally reviewing how to handle trainee Kim Jeongmin. We will be more careful in our artist management in the future so that this sort of unfortunate incident does not occur again.

Thank you.