The Korea Management Federation has responded to a report that it stripped Kang Daniel’s manager (“A”) of his membership.

The Korea Management Federation currently has about 300 managers as members. On July 16, a source from CBS No Cut News reported that the federation sent a text message to all its members announcing that A of KONNECT Entertainment (Kang Daniel’s new agency) had been stripped of his membership.

Kang Daniel set up KONNECT Entertainment after the Seoul District Courts ruled in his favor in his contract dispute with LM Entertainment. “A” was hired at the new company to be in charge of getting Kang Daniel cast on various broadcasts.

According to CBS No Cut News’ report, the Korea Management Federation stated, “We do not work with celebrities who have been publicly criticized for ethical or sexual problems, as well as celebrities who are currently in dispute with their agencies. The members of the federation must not enter exclusive contracts with these artists and refuse all offers of jobs. We took the step of [removing A’s membership] to protect the rights and interests of our members and the mandate of management overall.”

Later, a source from the Korea Management Federation told another media outlet, “It is true that we removed the membership of Kang Daniel’s manager. It so happened that only Kang Daniel’s manager was involved in the membership removals, but it was a situation in which there were a lot of problems and needed tidying.”

The source continued, “We took this step because there are still loose ends concerning the lawsuit and we needed to maintain public order. Because Kang Daniel’s manager was a member of our federation, we let him know in advance what we were planning to do, and he accepted it.”

However, the Korea Management Federation has suggested that this may not be a permanent state of affairs. In an interview with Star News, a source stated, “We had internal discussions about A’s membership. This is not to say that these discussions made a final decision one way or the other. This is a process that requires many deep discussions. We have also had many discussions with A and we made sure to check each other’s positions on the issue.”

Meanwhile, Kang Daniel is gearing up for his solo debut “Color on Me” later this month.

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