Seoul City invested 240 million won in girl group ”NewJeans” even though they said it was an unpaid honorary position. (Korea)

It has been revealed that the city of Seoul in South Korea paid 240 million won (approximately 26.26 million yen) in compensation to the popular idol group "NewJeans," who are its public relations ambassadors.
Although the position of ambassador is normally an honorary one that is unpaid, it has come under scrutiny over fairness after it was revealed that the city of Seoul has been providing remuneration to some of its ambassadors.
On the 8th, Seoul City Council member Kim Hye-young of the People's Power Party received the "2020-2024 Public Relations Ambassador Remuneration Documents" from the city of Seoul.
According to the report, NewJeans, who was appointed as a public relations ambassador for Seoul in February last year, received 240 million won in compensation. This is the highest amount paid to 55 people who have been appointed as public relations ambassadors for Seoul in the past five years.
This is more than half of the total 450 million won paid, making it the largest amount ever paid to an individual. NewJeans was appointed as Seoul City's public relations ambassador along with YouTuber Shukaworld at the beginning of last year.
Since being appointed as the ambassador, she has participated in various Seoul events, including Seoul Fashion Week. Generally, local government ambassadors are unpaid honorary positions.
According to Article 6 of the "Ordinance on Ambassador Management," the public relations ambassador is an honorary position without remuneration. In fact, Seoul City has paid a total of 450 million won to the 52 public relations ambassadors it has appointed over the past five years.
In addition to "NewJeans," it was confirmed that the company paid 40 million won to designer A and 20.5 million won to former broadcaster B.
The number of ambassadors was limited to 29. Councilman Kim Hye-young said, "I acknowledge that the ordinance allows public relations ambassadors to receive necessary expenses such as travel expenses for their activities, but I cannot accept the fact that NewJeans received
"The amount received should not be seen as merely a travel expense, but as a payment for the PR activities," he said. "During this time, he has been working hard on the promotional activities for the city of Seoul without receiving any compensation.
"There were many public relations ambassadors who were not appointed by the government," he said, adding, "As issues regarding the fairness of treatment among public relations ambassadors may arise in the future, I would like the standards to be made more specific so that measures can be taken to prevent the waste of taxpayers' money."
In response, the city of Seoul explained that while most of the ambassador work is unpaid, it is possible to cover activity expenses and advertising fees within the budget.