Aju Press - Asia News Hub

Journalist

Joonha Yoo유준하

ReporterCOEX Sejong Center for the Performing Arts & Music, Culture, Entertainment, Automotive

Joonha Yoo is a bilingual journalist at AJU Press (AJP), covering music, culture, entertainment and Korea’s automotive industry.
Raised in Fort Collins, Colorado, he often writes from the scene, bringing firsthand detail to stories ranging
from BTS comeback concerts to unique cultural events that catch the world's eye. "I write from the scene, not from the sidelines."

Latest by Joonha Yoo

AKMU's Lee Su-hyun to release rendition of Japanese classic next week SEOUL, August 12 (AJP) - Sibling duo AKMU's Lee Su-hyun is taking on Seiko Matsuda's 1980 J-pop classic "Blue Lagoon," the latest in a wave of Korean renditions of Japanese songs, production company SH Gold Networks said on Wednesday. Her version of the song is set to be released on major streaming platforms next week. "Blue Lagoon" made Matsuda a household name in Japan, with its bright melody and lyrics about the jitters of young love helping cement it as one of her signature songs. In South Korea, the song has an odd backstory of its own: long before Japanese pop was officially distributed here, it circulated through unofficial channels and became a kind of open secret among listeners who followed Japanese music on the sly. The song resurfaced in the spotlight in 2024, when NewJeans' Hanni sang it at an event for Japanese fans in Tokyo, drawing attention in both countries. SH Gold Networks described Lee's clear, warm vocals as adding a new texture to the song's breezy original feel, retaining its sense of anticipation while giving it her own emotional touch. The release slated for next Tuesday also marks a rare solo outing for Lee outside AKMU. More broadly, the project reflects how older Japanese pop songs are being reintroduced to South Korean audiences. AJP Takeaways: - AKMU's Lee Su-hyun will release a remake of Seiko Matsuda's 1980 J-pop classic "Blue Lagoon" on Aug. 18, according to SH Gold Networks. - "Blue Lagoon" became one of Matsuda's signature songs in Japan and also gained a following in South Korea before Japanese pop music was officially distributed there. - The song returned to wider attention in 2024 after NewJeans' Hanni performed it in Japan. 2026-08-12 17:43:15
Even Buddhism gets muddled over election in South Korea SEOUL, August 11 (AJP) - Elections can get dirty, and even one of South Korea's oldest religious traditions is not immune to the rough edges of politics. Inside Jogyesa Temple in downtown Seoul on Tuesday, 53 members of the Jogye Order's Central Assembly bowed before the Buddha and recited a declaration supporting incumbent chief administrator Ven. Jinwoo for another four-year term. They praised his first term for making Buddhism more "friendly and warm" and said he was best positioned to lead the country's largest Buddhist order through secularization and generational decline. But the headcount mattered almost as much as the ceremony. The 53 assembly members represent nearly two-thirds of the body's 81 seats, giving Jinwoo a formidable bloc of institutional support more than three weeks before the Sept. 3 election. Still, it does not guarantee victory. The Central Assembly accounts for only part of the 321-member electoral college. Another 240 electors — 10 from each of the order's 24 diocesan headquarters — will help decide whether Jinwoo wins a second term against Ven. Jeongnyeom and Ven. Gyeongu. The biggest question is whether Jinwoo should be allowed to run at all. Ven. Gakun, a former senior Jogye Order official, filed a lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court earlier this month challenging Jinwoo's eligibility and separately filed a criminal complaint accusing him of obstruction of business through deception. The allegations have not been established in court, and the Jogye Order rejects them. Yet they have turned what might have been an election fought over Jinwoo's four-year record into a dispute reaching back nearly half a century into his early life as a monk. Tuesday's endorsement declaration focused almost entirely on the present. It credited Jinwoo with taking Buddhism beyond temple walls through the Buddhist Expo, temple-stay programs and meditation programs aimed at Koreans struggling with stress and burnout. Buddhism has also gained visibility among younger Koreans through events mixing traditional Buddhist culture with DJs and rap, helping create the phenomenon sometimes described as "hip Buddhism." His supporters also point to the opening of the order's first Buddhist nursing hospital, expanded welfare assistance for elderly monks and pension-contribution support covering about 2,600 registered clergy. They credit his administration with removing admission fees at temple cultural heritage sites and providing electricity subsidies to roughly 300 temples. The declaration closes with Jinwoo's practice of performing 108 prostrations every morning, portraying his record as the product of steady Buddhist discipline. It says nothing about the dispute over his ordination. Gakun's challenge centers on Jinwoo's officially recorded novice ordination at Bohyeonsa Temple in Gangneung in October 1978. According to Gakun's complaint, no such ordination ceremony took place at Bohyeonsa that year and the monk recorded as presiding over it was staying at another temple at the time. He also alleges that Jinwoo's recorded period of religious study overlaps with his military service from 1982 to 1984 and that Jinwoo lived outside the monastic community for several years between 1985 and 1988 without formally completing procedures to leave the order. Jinwoo has not been found by a court to have falsified his record. The Jogye Order says his registration was legitimately established and ultimately settled under a special law governing old monastic registration records, and that his eligibility has repeatedly been recognized through the order's own procedures. What has kept the dispute alive are inconsistencies in Jinwoo's publicly available biographies. A 2012 profile in a Jogye Order-affiliated Buddhist newspaper, published when Jinwoo was a candidate for abbot of Baegyangsa Temple, said he received novice ordination at Woljeongsa Temple in 1973 and full ordination at Beomeosa Temple in 1978. His current official record is different. It lists his novice ordination as taking place at Bohyeonsa Temple in 1978 and his full ordination at Tongdosa Temple in 1998 — the same chronology contained in a statement he submitted when becoming head of the order's education institute in 2019. The conflicting biographies do not prove that his monastic registration is invalid. They have nevertheless given his critics grounds to demand that the record be examined again. The order's answer is that it already has been. At the center of that argument is the Special Act on Monastic Registration, adopted during the administration of the late Ven. Jaseung, who served as chief administrator from 2009 to 2017. The measure was intended to settle longstanding problems involving incomplete or disputed records from earlier decades by giving final effect to registrations recognized through the order's system. That solved one problem while creating another argument. Supporters regarded the law as a practical way to stop decades-old ordination disputes from repeatedly destabilizing the order. Critics argued that making registrations effectively final could shield questionable historical entries from renewed scrutiny. Jaseung himself had faced questions over changes in his own monastic registration history. That old argument is now playing out again around Jinwoo. Outside Jogyesa on Tuesday, a protester opposing Jinwoo's re-election put much of the blame on the registration law. "There are a lot of questions about his monastic history, including his ordination," the protester said. "Those are things he should explain." The protester argued that the law made it easier for disputed records to escape scrutiny and traced the problem to Jaseung's years of influence over the order. "This special law keeps creating these kinds of situations," the protester said. "It's a very bad law. It needs to be abolished." The dispute has also spilled into the Jogye Order's disciplinary system. Gakun says the order is seeking "myeolbin" against him, its most severe disciplinary sanction, which would strip him of his status as a monk, after he took his allegations to secular courts and investigative authorities. That has opened another fault line in the election: not just whether Jinwoo's record deserves another examination, but how a religious order should treat monks who take internal disputes outside the Buddhist establishment. For many ordinary Buddhists, however, the struggle inside the order can feel remote. Kim Ji-soo, a 35-year-old Buddhist from Gunja in eastern Seoul, regularly visits Jogyesa because it is close to her workplace but said she knows relatively little about the election. "Honestly, I don't know much about the election," Kim said. "Of course, as a Buddhist, I hope a good person is elected." She hopes the next chief administrator will continue finding ways to bring Buddhism closer to younger people, including through events such as the Buddhist Expo. "But it doesn't really feel like something that directly affects me," she said. "Maybe that's because I haven't studied Buddhism very deeply. I just hope a good person is chosen." That disconnect stands in contrast to the increasingly intense maneuvering among the monks who will decide the election. Jinwoo, Jeongnyeom and Gyeongu registered Tuesday for the three-way race. Jinwoo's supporters are campaigning on his record in public outreach, meditation and monk welfare, while the challenge over his eligibility ensures that his monastic history will follow him through the campaign. His endorsement by 53 Central Assembly members gives him a powerful base, but the decisive arithmetic will involve all 321 electors on Sept. 3. For Seong Jeong-ja, an 84-year-old Buddhist from Bundang who has practiced the faith for decades and now attends Bongeunsa Temple, the arguments over registration, elections and institutional power matter less than what they appear to be doing to the Buddhist community itself. "I think having an election for the chief administrator is a good thing, but of course a good person has to be chosen," Seong said. "What makes me sad is that Buddhism seems to be becoming divided rather than coming together." "As someone who has believed in Buddhism all my life," she said, "I would be very happy if people who follow the Buddha's teachings could come together." 2026-08-11 18:06:37
Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor set to resume partial strikes this week SEOUL, August 11 (AJP) - Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor will resume partial strikes this week after wage negotiations failed to narrow differences last month. The workers, who had just returned from their summer holiday, decided Tuesday to stage additional rounds of partial strikes from Wednesday through early next week, halting production for four hours each on Wednesday and Thursday before extending the stoppage to six hours each on Friday and next Tuesday. If carried out as planned, the additional strikes would result in 40 hours of lost production, bringing the cumulative stoppage from this year's wage dispute to about 100 hours. The automaker's union has been ratcheting up pressure in recent weeks. In July, it staged three rounds of partial strikes over nine days, starting with two-hour walkouts per shift from July 13 to 15 before extending them to four hours per shift. The automaker estimated that last month's strikes resulted in production losses of more than 42,000 vehicles. The company's domestic output in July fell 22 percent from the previous month to 137,449 vehicles, while domestic sales dropped 14.4 percent from a year earlier to 48,113 units. But the union left room for negotiations, saying it would suspend any scheduled strike once wage talks with management resume, possibly as early as Aug. 18. The union is seeking a 149,600 won increase in monthly base pay, a performance bonus equal to 30 percent of the company's net profit from the previous year, and an increase in regular bonuses to 800 percent from 750 percent. It is also demanding a prior labor agreement before any legal changes to the retirement age as well as the rehiring of workers who were fired. Both sides have gone back and forth between talks and strikes since last month without narrowing differences on major issues after the union rejected an offer from the company that included an 89,000 won increase in monthly base pay, a performance bonus worth 350 percent of base pay plus 10 million won, and 15 treasury shares per employee. Amid the union's new strike plans, Hyundai Motor's shares closed down 1.23 percent at 403,000 won for the day. AJP Takeaways: - Hyundai Motor's union will resume partial strikes from Aug. 12 after summer break, escalating stoppages to as long as six hours per shift on Aug. 14 and 18. - If all planned walkouts go ahead, this week's strikes would add 40 hours of lost production time and bring cumulative disruption from this year's wage talks to about 100 hours. - Hyundai Motor estimated July's earlier partial strikes caused production losses of more than 42,000 vehicles, while domestic output fell 22 percent from the previous month. 2026-08-11 17:42:38
KOSPI reverses early losses as KOSDAQ extends recent rally SEOUL, August 11 (AJP) - South Korean stocks reversed early losses Tuesday morning, with the benchmark KOSPI edging higher and the junior KOSDAQ gaining more than 1 percent as buying in construction and semiconductor equipment shares offset pressure from higher oil prices and renewed tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The main index traded 0.3 percent higher at 6,321 as of around 10:30 a.m., after falling more than 1 percent earlier in the session. It moved between a low of 6,213.78 and a high of 6,327.32. Retail investors bought 222 billion won (US$157 million) worth of KOSPI-listed shares, as foreign investors added 6.7 billion won. Institutions sold 204.1 billion won. Chip giant Samsung Electronics reversed early losses to rise 0.4 percent to 231,000 won, but other major technology shares remained weak. Rival SK hynix fell 2.89 percent to 1,379,000 won, Samsung Electro-Mechanics dropped 5.49 percent to 1,204,000 won and SK Square declined 3.37 percent to 917,000 won. LG Electronics and LS Electric each fell 3.84 percent, as Hanwha Ocean lost 3.28 percent. Hanwha Solutions rose 2.4 percent. NHN surged 15.9 percent after reporting second-quarter operating profit of 57.9 billion won, up 164 percent from a year earlier, on a 25.3 percent increase in revenue. Construction and insurance shares were also strong. Kumho Engineering & Construction soared 29.98 percent, as Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance jumped 8.4 percent and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance gained 3.7 percent. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ climbed 1.3 percent, or 10.89 points, to 865.94 after falling as low as 840.45 earlier in the session. Its intraday high stood at 875.16. Retail investors bought 160.2 billion won worth of KOSDAQ shares and institutions purchased 35.9 billion won, while foreign investors sold 199.4 billion won. Semiconductor equipment stocks led the rebound. Jusung Engineering surged 14.23 percent, SFA Semicon jumped 12.09 percent and Synopex gained 12.06 percent. YES-T rose 16.36 percent. Construction and cement-related small caps also rallied, with Namhwa Construction up 26.32 percent and Seosan gaining more than 26 percent. LK Samyang soared 29.93 percent. On the downside, Bonne fell 8.06 percent, as Seongho Electronics and Woori Technology each lost 4.84 percent. Both indexes had opened lower as renewed U.S.-Iran tensions raised uncertainty over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. stocks ended slightly lower overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11 percent, the S&P 500 slipped 0.06 percent and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.32 percent. Nvidia fell 2.86 percent, Micron dropped about 1.8 percent and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid 2.94 percent. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 5.1 percent overnight to $82.13 a barrel as the U.S.-Iran impasse clouded prospects for restoring normal traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield also moved back above 4.7 percent. The Korean won strengthened 0.4 percent to around 1,413.4 won against the dollar. Japan's stock market was closed in observance of Mountain Day, a national public holiday celebrated annually on Aug. 11 since 2016 to give people an opportunity to connect with nature and appreciate the blessings of mountains. Meanwhile, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.4 percent to 3,952.1, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up 0.14 percent to 25,973.66. AJP Takeaways: - South Korean stocks reversed early losses on Aug. 11, with the KOSPI up 0.3 percent at 6,321 and the KOSDAQ rising 1.3 percent to 865.94 as of 10:30 a.m. - Retail investors led buying in both markets, purchasing 222 billion won ($157 million) of KOSPI shares and 160.2 billion won of KOSDAQ shares, while institutions sold KOSPI stocks and foreign investors sold KOSDAQ shares. - Large-cap chip stocks remained weak, with SK hynix down 2.89 percent and Samsung Electro-Mechanics down 5.49 percent, while semiconductor equipment and construction shares posted sharp gains. - U.S.-Iran tensions and uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz kept pressure on markets after WTI crude jumped 5.1 percent to $82.13 a barrel and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield moved back above 4.7 percent. - The Korean won strengthened 0.4 percent to around 1,413.4 per dollar, while Japan was closed for the Mountain Day holiday and Chinese shares traded lower. 2026-08-11 11:13:46
OTT killed the cinema. Korea's hottest summer revives it SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - South Korea’s longest summer heat wave has breathed new life into a pastime and industry nearly killed by streaming — moviegoing and theaters. For couples like Kim Soo-hyun, 29, the once-standard weekend date outdoors has become almost impossible. “It’s been really hard to go on dates on weekends because it’s so hot,” said Kim, an office worker living in southern Seoul’s Seocho district. “The car is cool and comfortable, but the moment we get out and start walking, it becomes really difficult.” She and her boyfriend gravitate toward air-conditioned mall complexes where they can eat, shop and catch a movie without stepping back into the heat. Kim’s routine reflects a broader shift playing out across South Korea’s multiplexes. The record heat has given fresh relevance to a strategy already under way at CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox: making theaters about more than simply watching a film. Premium seats, late-night screenings, book clubs, concerts and other alternative programming are turning cinemas into places where people can spend several hours rather than watch a movie and leave. The question is whether that can become a genuine survival strategy for an industry still struggling to recover its pre-pandemic audience — or whether this summer’s rush will disappear with the heat. A summer for the record books The weather has certainly helped. Yangsan in southeastern South Korea reached 42.5 degrees Celsius in early August, the highest temperature recorded in the country in 122 years. President Lee Jae Myung called the prolonged heat wave a “national disaster” and ordered an intensified government response. The extreme weather arrived just as cinemas were beginning to show signs of recovery. South Korean theaters drew 57.05 million admissions in the first half of 2026, up 34.2 percent from a year earlier, while box-office revenue rose to 579 billion won, according to the Korean Film Council. Yet admissions were still only 56.5 percent of the average recorded in the first halves of 2017 through 2019, showing how far the industry remains from its pre-pandemic scale. The rebound accelerated during the height of this summer’s heat. Nationwide theaters drew 5.31 million moviegoers from Aug. 3 through Aug. 9, up 69.7 percent from 3.13 million during the comparable seven-day period a year earlier, according to daily data from the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS box-office system. Revenue jumped 80.3 percent to 55.21 billion won from 30.62 billion won. But heat alone cannot explain the surge. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” together accounted for 4.40 million admissions, or 82.9 percent of all moviegoers during the week, showing just how heavily the rebound depended on blockbuster releases. Still, moviegoers say the crowds feel different. “The site told me to wait in a queue because so many people were trying to book at once,” said Choi Min-soo, 45, an office worker from eastern Seoul’s Gangdong district who was trying to see “Spider-Man.” “It made me wonder whether the film industry was actually picking back up.” Kim also described auditoriums and ticket counters as fuller than she remembered seeing in years. She has already watched three of the summer’s major releases and plans to return for a second viewing of “The Odyssey” in IMAX. Selling the room, not just the screen CGV has been unusually explicit about selling the cinema as refuge from the heat. On July 29, South Korea’s largest multiplex operator launched a summer campaign under the slogan “When there’s a heat wave, go to CGV,” pitching theaters as places where customers can spend the summer in air-conditioned comfort. The promotion, which runs through Aug. 23, also rewards repeat visits and screenings in SCREENX auditoriums. But the effort to make theaters somewhere to stay, rather than merely somewhere to watch a movie, began well before this summer. In March, CGV turned its recliner-equipped Stressless Cinema at Cine de Chef Yongsan into a two-hour book club. Participants received copies of Andy Weir’s “Project Hail Mary,” along with food and beverages, and spent the session reading inside the auditorium. CGV described it as an attempt to offer a different kind of cultural experience inside a movie theater. In June, the chain went further. During BTS concerts in Busan, CGV operated an overnight “All Movie Night” at its Asiad branch, screening concert footage and films from late at night until the following morning. The company explicitly marketed the program as a comfortable place for concertgoers to stay after the show. The diversification extends beyond CGV. Lotte Cinema sells tickets for virtual-reality concert content alongside conventional films, while Megabox operates boutique and recliner auditoriums and programs cultural content under brands including Classic Society. For Kim, who watched “The Odyssey” at a boutique auditorium inside Megabox Coex, the appeal went far beyond air conditioning. “I basically watched it lying down — it was so comfortable,” she said. The premium price did not feel excessive, she added, compared with what a couple might otherwise spend on a weekend outing. The numbers suggest more moviegoers are willing to pay for experiences they cannot reproduce at home. Revenue from IMAX, 4D, SCREENX, Dolby Cinema and other special-format screenings reached 45.7 billion won in the first half of 2026, up 56.3 percent from a year earlier. Admissions to those formats rose 49 percent to 2.85 million. That growth stands out because the overall cinema audience remains far below pre-pandemic levels. Theaters are no longer simply trying to bring people back through the doors. They are trying to make each visit something streaming cannot easily replace. “I don’t know if I’d say the theater is more convenient than streaming,” Choi said. “But there’s an appeal that’s unique to the cinema.” That distinction matters because the industry’s financial pain has hardly disappeared. South Korean theaters recorded 106.09 million admissions in 2025, down 13.8 percent from a year earlier, while box-office revenue fell 12.4 percent to 1.047 trillion won. Both declined for a second straight year. The Korean Film Council nevertheless identified one bright spot: special-format revenue jumped 46.3 percent to 111 billion won, which it linked to growing demand for experience-oriented moviegoing. Even CGV’s domestic operation remained in the red early this year. Its Korean business generated 175.4 billion won in first-quarter revenue, up 36.7 percent from a year earlier, but still posted an operating loss of 6.6 billion won. Conditions are more severe at Megabox JoongAng. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court opened rehabilitation proceedings for the cinema operator on June 30 after the company sought court protection to normalize its operations and remain a going concern. A proposed merger between Megabox and Lotte Cinema was also halted after the memorandum of understanding between their parent companies expired on June 30. The government, meanwhile, is spending public money to lure audiences back. A supplementary budget approved in April allocated 27.1 billion won for 4.5 million cinema discount vouchers worth 6,000 won each. After the first round, about 2.05 million vouchers were distributed in a second round beginning July 8 through CGV, Lotte Cinema, Megabox and CineQ. The Culture Ministry made the seasonal strategy unusually explicit. The title of its July 6 announcement promoting the second round asked: “How about the cinema as your summer vacation destination?” That makes this summer’s box-office rebound impossible to pin on one factor. Record heat has made air-conditioned indoor entertainment more attractive. Blockbusters have supplied the films people want to see. Government vouchers have made tickets cheaper. What the heat has done most clearly is give cinema operators a fresh way to sell the one thing Netflix, Disney+ and other streaming platforms cannot provide: the room itself. Whether book clubs, overnight screenings, recliners and premium auditoriums can materially change the economics of moviegoing — or merely deliver extra traffic during an extraordinary summer — remains uncertain. For Kim, however, the calculation is simpler. “No matter how far streaming comes,” she said, “it can never recreate the memory of eating popcorn in a theater, or that smell of butter the moment you walk in.” 2026-08-10 17:58:13
Super Junior's Yesung adds Seoul show as tour sells out SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - Yesung of K-pop boy band Super Junior has added a third Seoul concert to his 10th anniversary solo tour after the first two shows sold out, his agency SM Entertainment said on Monday. The additional show as part of the Seoul leg of his tour is scheduled for Oct. 16, just ahead of the two already sold-out gigs scheduled for the following days. Tickets for the show will be sold through Ticketlink. Domestic presales through Super Junior's official fan club E.L.F. will open on Aug. 12, followed by presales for global fans on Aug. 13, before opening to all fans on Aug. 14. The upcoming tour, which marks 10 years since he began his solo career, will take Yesung to eight Asian cities including Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Kuala Lumpur, Macao, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Yokohama. Yesung also plans to release a full-length album sometime later this year. AJP Takeaways: - Super Junior's Yesung added a third Seoul concert on Oct. 16 after the Oct. 17-18 shows of his 10th-anniversary solo tour sold out. - The Seoul concerts will now span three nights before the tour continues across eight Asian cities. - Tickets for the added concert will go on sale through Ticketlink. - The tour marks 10 years since Yesung began his solo career. - Yesung is also scheduled to release a full-length album in the fourth quarter. 2026-08-10 17:41:48
K-pop boy band NCT's duo sub-unit wrap up 1st Asian tour SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - K-pop boy band NCT's sub-unit JNJM, consisting of Jeno and Jaemin, wrapped up their first Asian tour with three sold-out concerts in Bangkok over the weekend, their agency SM Entertainment said on Monday. The concerts drew a total of 27,000 fans, bringing their tour to an end after 13 shows across six Asian cities including Bangkok, Jakarta, Kaohsiung, Macao, Seoul and Tokyo. The tour kicked off in Seoul in June. During the Bangkok finale, the two members performed six songs including "BOTH SIDES," "HASHTAG," "I.D.O.L.," "sexier," "What It Is" and "WIND UP." The finale also featured talks and other events with fans, giving the two members a chance to interact with the audience and showcase their onstage chemistry. "Every moment of this unit fan meeting tour was precious and happy," NCT JNJM said through SM. "We are sincerely grateful for the warm support sent to us in each region. We hope our charm and energy as a duo came through to everyone, and although this fan meeting tour has ended, we will keep working hard to return with different sides of ourselves." "Every moment of the tour was precious and made us happy," NCT JNJM said. "We are truly grateful for the warm support we received throughout the tour," adding that they will continue working hard to show new sides of themselves. NCT JNJM debuted as a unit in February with their first mini album "BOTH SIDES." The release pushed the duo past half a million in sales, topping major charts in South Korea as well as Japan's Oricon daily album chart. It also reached the top 10 on iTunes' Top Albums chart in 17 regions. AJP Takeaways: - NCT JNJM, the duo unit of NCT members Jeno and Jaemin, wrapped their first tour with three sold-out shows in Bangkok from Aug. 7 to 9. - The Bangkok finale drew 27,000 fans and brought the tour to 13 shows across six Asian cities. - The tour began in June in Seoul and continued through Bangkok, Jakarta, Kaohsiung, Macao, and Tokyo. - NCT JNJM debuted in February with "BOTH SIDES," which became a half-million seller and topped Oricon's daily album chart in Japan. - The tour confirms Jeno and Jaemin's unit demand beyond NCT's full-group activities, especially in Asia. 2026-08-10 17:24:40
BTS 'ARIRANG' tour turns city stops into civic events SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) -K-pop megastars BTS are turning their "ARIRANG" world tour into more than a stadium run, with cities from Toronto to Mexico City and Paris rolling out civic honors and tourism campaigns to capitalize on the group's global drawing power. City councils, governors and even national leaders are treating BTS concert stops as public events, tourism opportunities and highly visible gestures of welcome. Toronto's city council recently reviewed and approved a proposal to temporarily name part of a city road "BTS Boulevard" around the group's upcoming concerts, according to music industry sources Monday. The designation is expected to run from Aug. 21 to Sept. 23, covering the period around BTS' two shows at Rogers Stadium on Aug. 22 and 23. The council also plans to ask the city to officially proclaim the concert dates as "BTS Weekend." BigHit Music said Toronto officials had contacted the company to ask about approval for use of the group's intellectual property related to the road naming and BTS Weekend plan, and that discussions are under way. BTS began the North American leg of the tour this month and is scheduled to perform at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Aug. 10 and 11, AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Aug. 15 and 16, and Rogers Stadium in Toronto on Aug. 22 and 23, before moving on to Chicago, Los Angeles and Latin America, according to the official tour schedule. In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore posted a video message welcoming the group to Baltimore, naming all seven members — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook — and saying their music has shown how people can come together across different cultures, regions and languages. "Welcome to Baltimore," Moore said in the video, which included both English and Korean subtitles. Baltimore's tourism office has also listed a slate of BTS-related fan events around the concerts, including K-pop karaoke, fan gatherings and pre-concert events, showing how the tour is spilling beyond the stadium into the city's restaurants, bars and cafes. The local government response has built throughout the tour. In April, El Paso County in Texas presented BTS with the "Estimado Amigo" award and proclaimed May 2 and 3 as "El Paso BTS Weekend" ahead of the group's concerts at Sun Bowl Stadium, citing the tour's boost to local tourism. In Mexico City, President Claudia Sheinbaum met the group at the National Palace ahead of their May concerts and presented them with a commemorative plaque from the Mexican government. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron attended BTS' July 17 concert at Stade de France, placing the group's European tour stop inside France's political and cultural spotlight rather than just its pop calendar. The Paris shows also drew some of the largest crowds of BTS' career: Korean media reported about 92,000 fans at Stade de France on both Friday and Saturday, closing the European leg with what was described as the group's biggest single-show crowd. BTS launched the "ARIRANG" world tour in April at Goyang Stadium in South Korea, its largest tour to date, following the release of an album of the same name and the return of all seven members after completing their mandatory military service. For host cities, the appeal goes beyond ticket sales. BTS concerts tend to bring a surge of international visitors, hotel bookings, restaurant traffic and social media attention — the kind of economic and cultural spillover that officials are increasingly willing to formalize through proclamations, street names, welcome videos and high-profile political appearances. AJP Takeaway: ▲BTS’ “ARIRANG” world tour is turning stadium concerts into civic events, with Toronto moving to create a temporary “BTS Boulevard” and proclaim “BTS Weekend” around the group’s Aug. 22–23 shows. ▲BigHit Music said Toronto officials contacted the company about intellectual property approval for the road naming and BTS Weekend plan, with discussions still under way. ▲Maryland Gov. Wes Moore welcomed BTS to Baltimore in a bilingual video, while El Paso County and Mexico City earlier used official honors to mark the group’s tour stops. ▲French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron attended BTS’ July 17 concert at Stade de France, adding a national political spotlight to the tour’s European leg. ▲The civic response shows how BTS concerts now generate more than ticket sales, creating tourism, city branding, fan events and local economic spillover. 2026-08-10 15:44:02
Culture ministry, YouTube pledge closer ties on Korean creator content SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - Korea's culture ministry and YouTube agreed Monday to strengthen cooperation around Korean creators, signaling that short-form and creator-led video are being treated less as a side channel and more as a growing part of the country's content industry. Kim Young-soo, first vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, met with YouTube Vice President of Product Woojin Kim at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul to discuss ways to support YouTube's creator ecosystem and expand the global reach of Korean content, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. YouTube said Korean channels are already drawing a substantial overseas audience, with 30 percent of total watch time for Korean YouTube channels coming from outside South Korea. Kim Woojin said the platform has played a role in spreading K-content globally and will keep supporting Korean creators as they expand their influence in overseas markets and generate economic value. Kim Young-soo said YouTube has helped Korean creators work across different fields and introduce K-culture to global audiences, adding that the ministry hopes to continue active exchanges with the platform. The two sides also discussed policy direction for what the ministry calls "new media video content," including YouTube videos and short-form content, and agreed that the industry's continued growth requires a promotion-oriented approach that puts innovation and growth ahead of regulation. The framing matters because creator-led video has increasingly become part of how Korean music, food, beauty, travel and lifestyle content reaches viewers abroad, often outside the traditional broadcast or studio system. Rather than treating creators as separate from the mainstream content industry, the ministry's statement placed them within the broader K-content ecosystem, saying the two sides will strengthen communication and cooperation so the creator industry can grow as one axis of that ecosystem. The two sides also discussed the responsibility of major new media platforms to provide safe and appropriate content for all viewers, including minors. YouTube said it will continue efforts to meet that responsibility as a leading platform for new media video content, while the ministry asked for continued cooperation in supporting the sustainable development of the creator ecosystem. AJP Takeaway: ▲ South Korea’s culture ministry and YouTube agreed on Aug. 10 to deepen cooperation on Korean creators and new media video, positioning creator-led and short-form content as a growing part of the country’s K-content industry. ▲ About 30 percent of watch time for Korean YouTube channels comes from viewers outside South Korea, according to YouTube, underscoring the platform’s role in carrying Korean content to global audiences. ▲ The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said policy for “new media video content,” including YouTube and short-form video, should prioritize innovation, growth and industry promotion rather than regulation alone. ▲ The talks also framed Korean creators as part of the broader K-content ecosystem, alongside music, food, beauty, travel and lifestyle content that increasingly reaches overseas audiences through digital platforms. ▲The ministry and YouTube also discussed platform responsibility for safe and appropriate content, including protections for minors, as part of efforts to support the creator industry’s sustainable growth. 2026-08-10 14:25:34
BIGBANG to reunite solo colors on 20th-anniversary single 'BiiiG' SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - K-pop super group BIGBANG will release a new digital single, "BiiiG," on Aug. 19, marking the group's first new song in more than four years and tying the comeback directly to its 20th anniversary. YG Entertainment unveiled the release poster through its official channels Monday. The single will arrive two days before BIGBANG opens its 20th-anniversary world tour, "XX : COSMOS," with three concerts at Goyang Stadium from Aug. 21 to 23. It is the group's first new release since "Still Life" in April 2022, and it comes after G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung each restarted major solo activity in recent years. BIGBANG also returned to the stage as a group at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, where the members said they had completed work on a new album and would begin a world tour in August. The "BiiiG" poster, with red, blue and yellow vertical lines, appears to echo the visual worlds each member has carried through his solo releases, reading like a small map of BIGBANG's separate paths converging back into one. G-Dragon released his third solo studio album, "Übermensch," in February 2025, his first full-length album in 11 years. Daesung followed in April 2025 with "D's Wave," his first solo EP. Taeyang released his fourth studio album, "Quintessence," in May this year, his first full-length album in nearly nine years. Read against that sequence, "BiiiG" looks less like a routine anniversary single than a reunion built by placing three sharply defined solo identities side by side, rather than erasing them. BIGBANG debuted in August 2006 and became one of the defining acts of second-generation K-pop with songs including "Lies," "Last Farewell," "Haru Haru," "Fantastic Baby" and "Bang Bang Bang." The group also helped shift the image of idol acts in Korea by placing greater emphasis on songwriting, production and performance identity, with its members building solo careers alongside group releases. That history gives "BiiiG" more weight than a standard anniversary project. "Still Life," released in 2022 after a long hiatus, was widely read as a reflective return. "BiiiG" arrives in a more active moment, just ahead of a stadium tour that will take BIGBANG through North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia, according to YG's tour schedule. YG said "BiiiG" will show the current state of BIGBANG as the group marks its 20th anniversary. The question around the single is not only what BIGBANG sounds like after four years, but how three sharply defined solo identities settle back into one group frame. AJP Takeaway: ▲BIGBANG will release “BiiiG” on Aug. 19, its first new song since “Still Life” in April 2022 and a direct marker of the group’s 20th anniversary. ▲The single arrives two days before BIGBANG opens its “XX : COSMOS” world tour with three concerts at Goyang Stadium from Aug. 21 to 23. ▲The “BiiiG” poster’s red, blue and yellow lines appear to echo the solo eras of G-Dragon, Daesung and Taeyang, whose recent albums include “Übermensch,” “D’s Wave” and “Quintessence.” ▲The release frames BIGBANG’s anniversary not only as a return after four years, but as a reunion of three members who have each rebuilt distinct solo identities. ▲The next question is how BIGBANG’s group sound will absorb those solo identities as the tour moves across North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia. 2026-08-10 12:27:23