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Mark Leaves NCT and SM Entertainment After 10 Years

Mark, a member of K-pop boy band NCT, will terminate his contract with SM Entertainment and leave the group, effective next Wednesday, after a decade with the agency. SM cited extensive discussions, while Mark shared a handwritten letter expressing gratitude and his dream of traveling with his acoustic guitar.

By Tertius News AI Desk 1 outlet · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Apr 3, 2026 Published Aug 13

Lead

Mark, a member of the K-pop boy band NCT, is leaving the group and will terminate his contract with SM Entertainment, according to statements from the agency and the artist on Friday.

The decision, effective next Wednesday, was made "after sufficient and deep discussions with Mark for a long time," SM Entertainment said in a company statement, as reported by Yonhap News Agency.

Coverage Comparison

Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's leading wire service, covered the announcement in two separate reports. The first report focused on SM Entertainment's official statement, while a subsequent update added Mark's personal message posted on Instagram later the same day. Both reports agree on the core facts: Mark's contract termination, his departure from NCT, and the effective date.

Key Claims

According to Yonhap's reports, Mark debuted in 2016 as part of NCT and performed across the group's sub-units, including NCT 127 and NCT Dream. In April last year, he released a solo album, "The Firstfruit."

SM Entertainment is quoted as saying, "Mark has been a remarkable artist over the last 10 years, demonstrating outstanding abilities both as a group member and as a solo artist," and expressed well-wishes for his new journey.

Mark's personal statement, as relayed by Yonhap, included a handwritten letter in which he acknowledged the suddenness of the news, expressed gratitude to fans and fellow members, and explained his long-held dream of traveling while performing music with his acoustic guitar and writing. He thanked the members for supporting his decision "wholeheartedly," adding that he felt "tearfully grateful and forever sorry" to them.

To fans, he wrote, "You have made me the happiest person for the past 10 years. Because of you, I was able to dream bigger as a singer and make that dream come true." He concluded by pledging to "always be thankful to SM, the NCT members and NCTzens" — the name of the group's global fan base — and said he would do his best to return "with a better version of Mark" in the future.

Perspectives

SM Entertainment framed the departure as a mutually agreed decision after lengthy discussions, emphasizing Mark's contributions and wishing him well. Mark's own message conveyed a mix of gratitude and apology, while also articulating his personal aspirations beyond the group. Neither the company nor Mark provided further details on the reasons for the split, leaving room for speculation among fans and observers about the broader context of his career trajectory.

How this outlet told it

A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.

Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 7:01 AM UTC

Framing: Our reading Mark leaving NCT and SM Entertainment — Neutral

Facts Included:

Mark will terminate his contract with SM Entertainment
Mark will leave K-pop boy band NCT
The decision is effective next Wednesday
Mark debuted in 2016 as part of NCT
Mark has performed with NCT 127 and NCT Dream
Mark released a solo album 'The Firstfruit' in April last year

Read the source article →

Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC

Framing: Our reading Mark leaving NCT and SM Entertainment — Neutral with a personal touch

Facts Included:

Mark will terminate his contract with SM Entertainment
Mark will leave K-pop boy band NCT
The decision is effective next Wednesday
Mark debuted in 2016 as part of NCT
Mark has performed with NCT 127 and NCT Dream
Mark released a solo album 'The Firstfruit' in April last year
Mark's statement on Instagram about his decision to leave NCT
Mark's plans to travel and perform music with his acoustic guitar

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimMark of K-pop boy band NCT will terminate his contract with SM Entertainment and leave the group. The decision is effective next Wednesday.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC
ClaimMark debuted in 2016 as part of NCT and has actively performed across the group's sub-units, including NCT 127 and NCT Dream.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 7:01 AM UTC
ClaimMark released a solo album 'The Firstfruit' in April last year.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 7:01 AM UTC
ClaimMark shared a handwritten letter on Instagram, expressing his gratitude to fans and fellow members in what would be his final message as part of NCT.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC
ClaimMark decided to follow a long-held dream of traveling around performing music with his acoustic guitar and writing.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC
ClaimMark thanked the members, who supported his decision 'wholeheartedly', and felt 'tearfully grateful and forever sorry' to them.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC
ClaimMark pledged to 'always be thankful to SM, the NCT members and NCTzens', and said he would do his best to return 'with a better version of Mark' in the future.	ConfidenceMedium	StatusSingle-source via Yonhap News — English as of Apr 3, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 outlet · 2 articles consulted: Yonhap News — English 7 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-13