Park Jin-young says doubts over his sincerity are 'hardest to bear' ahead of national audit

"Does anyone really think JYP would hold onto this trademark for itself?"

Park Jin-young, co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, publicly addressed the controversy over trademark ownership of the global K-pop festival Fanomenon on Tuesday, one day before he was set to appear as a witness at a National Assembly audit by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee.

Park appeared on SBS radio's "Kim Taehyeon's Politics Show" Tuesday morning to explain the circumstances behind the trademark filing, the event's budget structure and his receipt of business expenses — the main points of contention raised against him.

On the trademark dispute, Park said the filing was a precautionary move. "Once we announced the event name, someone else could have registered it first and blocked us from using it," he said. "Our company had a team in place, so we registered it first with the intention of transferring it once a dedicated person was assigned."

Fanomenon is a large-scale global festival and awards ceremony being developed jointly by the government and the four major K-pop agencies — Hybe, SM, YG and JYP. The inaugural event is planned for December 2027 in South Korea, with overseas editions to follow. The controversy erupted when it emerged that JYP Entertainment — the agency of committee co-chair Park — had filed for the trademark before the government did. While the domestic trademark was split equally between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and JYP, JYP was found to hold the overseas trademark alone, prompting criticism that a private company was appropriating core rights to a public project.

Park said the speed of the filing was driven by both competitive and financial concerns. "If someone else registered the Fanomenon name first after we announced it, we would have been unable to use it," he said. Domestic filing costs about 40 million won ($29,400), while overseas filing runs at least 600 million to 700 million won, he noted, adding that the committee at the time had neither dedicated staff nor a budget for the process, so his company's in-house team handled it.

He described the arrangement as a stopgap. "It was meant to be a temporary measure until dedicated event staff were in place," he said. "In a project where four rival agencies are working together, JYP monopolizing the trademark would make cooperation impossible."

Park was clear that Fanomenon is intended to be driven primarily by private capital, but said safeguards were built in to prevent it from becoming profit-driven. "We agreed to hold the trademark jointly with the government on a 50-50 basis so that if the event strays from its public-interest purpose, the government can block its use," he said. The contract between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the joint venture set up by the four agencies also includes three clauses requiring the event to maintain its public-interest character, he added.

Some critics have questioned whether the event amounts to using government money to generate profits for private companies. Park pushed back, saying the 15 billion won in public funding "is not production money for the event itself" but is earmarked solely for public-interest purposes such as purchasing booth space for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Park described the core concept of Fanomenon as a "fandom industry awards," distinct from a music performance or content ceremony in that it places fan communities at the center. "K-pop has reached a primary ceiling within the framework of Korean singers and Korean content," he said. "The idea is to transform content into a fandom industry and for Korea to take the lead in that industry — the way the Nobel Prize defines its field." He added that the awards would recognize not singers but the entities that have built the best fandoms, or the fandoms themselves, with an eye toward eventually expanding into fashion, sports and other industries.

Park had previously said on an entertainment program that he was serving as co-chair on a non-standing, unpaid basis. It later emerged that he had been receiving monthly business expenses of around 2 million to 3 million won, drawing criticism.

He said he had not initially known the payments were being made. "I could have returned the money to stay true to my unpaid commitment," he said, "but I thought that if future private-sector experts in fields like semiconductors or defense join similar roles, it could create pressure — people asking why they are being paid when Park Jin-young was not. I decided it was better to set a precedent for how public-private collaboration should work." He also mentioned friction within the organization over combining official government duties with private business activities during overseas trips, pointing to what he called the inflexibility of the current administrative system when it comes to public-private cooperation.

Park said he had volunteered to appear at Wednesday's National Assembly audit and chose to do so as a witness rather than in a less binding capacity. "What is hardest to bear is not being criticized for specific problems, but having my sincerity in pursuing the public good called into question," he said. "I decided I needed to appear as a witness — someone who can be prosecuted for perjury — for the members to truly believe what I am saying."