CKM Entertainment

CKM Entertainment is a subsidiary company of CKM Group, a management and production agency for actors and musicians. CKM Ent. was founded in 1999 and has produced and managed various successful actors and musicians, including K-Pop groups. The two most successful and currently active K-Pop groups with the company are the boy group KOSMIC and the girl group BADKITTY.

CKM Group, owned by Kim Chulwoo, is a conglomerate of companies in various sectors and was founded by Kim Chulwoo’s grandfather, Kim Changkyun (CKM). CKM Group is run by a board of directors which includes Kim Chulwoo as its President/Chairman. On this board of directors are the other CEOs, COOs, and CFOs Chulwoo has appointed to each of the Group’s subsidiary companies. The Vice President/Vice Chairwoman of CKM Group is Kim Chulwoo’s daughter, Kim Aera, an alum of Harvard and Chulwoo's only child.

Some notable companies within CKM Group include an airline, founded by Chulwoo’s father, engineering firms, energy companies, an agricultural management company, various food processing facilities, a pharmaceutical company, and other transportation companies. Of all of these companies owned by CKM Group, CKM Entertainment is an outlier in that it provides entertainment rather than essential services.

When Kim Chulwoo inherited CKM Group from his father, Kim Changwook, he instituted new management processes. One of CKM Group’s key tenants now is its emphasis on sustainability, which it applies to all of the above industries. For example, Group’s airline prioritizes use of biofuel for jet fuel, which some of its agricultural and food processing companies play a role in manufacturing. Most of the airline's flights are powered by jet biofuel and only fly full flights, helping to reduce carbon emissions. CKM Group also invests a significant amount of money into climate research and the conservation of nature and wildlife habitat in South Korea.

While not strictly the most profitable approach to running a large corporation, Chulwoo has stated about the changes he's made to the corporation, "CKM Group is committed to progress, not profit." This statement showcases its CEO's rare character, further demonstrated by the private, reserved figure's unique personal history.

Kim Chulwoo’s wife, famous ballad singer and actress Kang Areum, founded CKM Entertainment in 1999. The entertainment agency was a gift from Chulwoo to his wife after their marriage in 1997. Their marriage was a huge scandal of the late 90s—Chulwoo was engaged to the daughter of another chaebol family, but called off the marriage and married a well-known entertainer instead. As Kim Chulwoo was the only heir to CKM Group, this made it an even bigger scandal and the family lost some face in the upper class of Korea, their status only maintained by their financial power.

Kang Areum ran CKM Ent. as its CEO until she passed away from cancer. During the 16 years that she ran the company, it became one of the "big four"—now "big five" — of entertainment agencies in South Korea. Chulwoo took over as its CEO after his wife’s passing, rather than entrusting its management to one of his wife’s employees.

CKM Ent.'s hit boy group KOSMIC debuted in 2019 and became an international success.

In 2022, current CKM Group Vice Chairwoman, Kim Aera, was revealed to be in a relationship with Yun Hajun, a K-Pop idol from the boy group KOSMIC. A former manager of KOSMIC broke company rules, along with his employment contract, and sold photographs of the couple to the press to pay off a personal debt. The public was shocked by the relationship between a popular K-Pop idol and a chaebol heiress. The scandal was an echo of the scandal of Kim Aera's parents.

At a press conference in response to the scandal, it was announced that CKM Ent. would change its dating policies for its idols, removing the restrictive dating ban. Despite this change, as a result of the scandal Yun Hajun left KOSMIC and began his career as a solo artist under CKM Entertainment.

It is currently unknown to the world whether Kim Aera and Yun Hajun's relationship survived the scandal of being revealed to the public.

[Disclaimer: All of this information is fictionalized and for the purpose of entertainment. Any mention of companies, groups, or names of characters are used in a fictional capacity and are not intended to represent reality.]