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Pyo Kyung-min

Korea Times K-Culture Reporter

Stay tuned for Pyo Kyung-min's latest K-pop stories, where she digs into the backstories that matter. She’d love to hear from you — share your thoughts at pzzang@koreatimes.co.kr. After all, every article gets better with insights from those who love the scene, just like she does!

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K-pop

Sunmi returns with rainy summer single 'Forever July'

Singer Sunmi is returning with a new digital single Wednesday, betting that rain, rather than sunshine, can carry this summer's soundtrack. "Forever July," due out at 6 p.m., marks the singer's first release in about eight months following her first full-length album, "Heart Maid," released last November. Sunmi once again took part in writing and composing the track, according to her label Abyss Company. The agency described "Forever July" as an inversion of the familiar summer anthem. The song draws inspiration from Korea's monsoon season, comparing love to a sudden downpour that arrives without warning. Built around a U.K. garage beat, the track explores both the thrill and instability of unexpected romance. Summer has become one of Sunmi's strongest seasons. While K-pop has typically leaned into brighter, more upbeat concepts, the 34-year-old has carved out a distinctive niche with moodier, more sophisticated summer releases. Her 2020 single "pporappippam" reached the top 10 of the Circle Digital Chart, and "Heart Burn" followed as another seasonal hit in 2022. The comeback also follow

Jul 15, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Sunmi returns with rainy summer single 'Forever July'
K-pop

Boy band idntt expands to 20 members with new unit, album 'itsnotover'

Multi-member K-pop boy group idntt has expanded its lineup to 20, adding five new members to its two previously debuted units with the release of its new album "itsnotover" on Monday. The album marks the birth of a new unit of the same name, building on the narrative idntt established through its earlier units, unevermet and yesweare. Where the two captured the butterflies and confidence of youth, "itsnotover" unleashes a youthful spirit that refuses to end. The newly assembled 20 members gathered at BlueSquare Theater in Seoul's Yongsan District, Monday afternoon, to announce the launch of the new unit and the album's release, sharing their thoughts on debuting and their plans for the promotion cycle. The five members of itsnotover who took their first debut stage that day — Kwak Gi-woong, Kim Eun-sung, Cho Eun-chan, Yang Gyung-ho and Lee Joo-heon — revealed that, true to its name, the unit does not end at five. "Just like our team name, we wanted to give fans a sense of anticipation that never ends," Kim Eun-sung said. "The identities of four more itsnotover members have yet to be

Jul 13, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Boy band idntt expands to 20 members with new unit, album 'itsnotover'
People & Events

'Beautiful Things' singer Benson Boone to return to Korea in October

American popstar Benson Boone will return to Korea for a solo concert on Oct. 26 as part of his "Wanted Man" world tour, the show's organizer, Live Nation Korea, said Monday. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in Hall 10 of KINTEX Exhibition Center 2 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. The singer launched the "Wanted Man" tour this month, following his "American Heart" tour of North America and Europe, which ran from August last year to March and sold out across both continents. Boone rose to fame through TikTok before appearing on the 19th season of "American Idol." His breakout hit "Beautiful Things" (2024) became the most-streamed song in the world that year, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Billboard Global 200 for seven weeks. His debut album, "Fireworks & Rollerblades" (2024), reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and he earned a best new artist nomination at the 67th Grammy Awards, where he performed "Beautiful Things" with his signature backflip. His second album, "American Heart" (2025), debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and placed three tracks on the Hot 100

Jul 13, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
'Beautiful Things' singer Benson Boone to return to Korea in October
K-pop

ARMY's greatest strength is resilience: scholar on BTS

When online communities grow large enough, conflict is almost inevitable. Anonymous interactions, differing expectations and cultural divides can fracture even the most devoted fandoms. Yet one global community continues to defy that pattern, according to Lee Ji-heng, assistant professor in the Department of K-Entertainment at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) and a scholar of fandom studies. "ARMY's greatest strength is not its organization or ability to mobilize," Lee, referring to the BTS fandom, told The Korea Times in a written interview. "It is its resilience." It is a striking claim, given that organization is precisely what ARMY is best known for. Formed in 2013, shortly after BTS' debut under what was then a little-known agency, the fandom has grown from a modest local fan club into arguably the most influential fan community in popular music. Over the years, it has powered record-breaking streaming, voting campaigns and even coordinated charity drives. Yet like any other online-based community, ARMY experiences its share of conflict. For all its reputation of maturity, Lee ackn

Jul 12, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
ARMY's greatest strength is resilience: scholar on BTS
K-pop

Why is coed K-pop group KARD ending its journey?

KARD, one of the few coed groups in the current K-pop landscape, will end its 10-year run the way it spent most of it — as an exception. The quartet filled venues across Europe and the Americas for years, yet never converted that momentum into comparable recognition at home. The first full-length album of its career, out July 28, will also be its last. DSP Media announced Monday that the group will disband after releasing "Where To Now? (Part.2): NOWHERE" and wrapping a final world tour, closing a journey that began with the pre-debut single "Oh NaNa" in December 2016. "After careful discussions with all four members, we have agreed to conclude KARD's journey following these activities," the agency said, asking fans to support BM, J.Seph, Somin and Jiwoo as they move on to individual careers. That a group could tour the world for a decade before releasing a full-length album says much about how KARD operated, and about the market that barely made room for it. Modern K-pop runs on fandom. Physical album sales, music show votes and concert revenue are driven by "superfans," the deeply eng

Jul 10, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Why is coed K-pop group KARD ending its journey?
K-pop

NewJeans sued for alleged copyright infringement in US

K-pop group NewJeans' hit song "ETA" has become the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States. According to a Korean-language entertainment media, U.S. copyright management company All Surface Publishing filed the suit over "ETA" with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday (local time). The suit names not only NewJeans, its agency ADOR and ADOR's parent company HYBE, producer 250 and lyricists Beenzino and Vana as defendants, as well as Apple, the U.S. electronics maker that featured the group in its advertising. All Surface Publishing claims that "ETA" lifts instrumentals from "Samir's Theme," a 2005 dance track by producer DJ Debonair Samir to which it holds the rights. The suit alleges the unauthorized use of the track's syncopated horn melody, 16th-note rhythmic structure and bass drum pattern. Among other remedies, the plaintiff is reportedly seeking profits earned from the song and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for the alleged infringement. "ETA" is one of the tracks from NewJeans' second EP "Get Up," released in 2023.

Jul 9, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
NewJeans sued for alleged copyright infringement in US
Trends

Young Koreans find peace in palm of their hands

Walk down a narrow alley in Changsin-dong, a neighborhood in Jongno District tucked behind Dongdaemun in central Seoul, and you will find a scene that seems frozen in time. Shopfronts overflow with plastic toys, character stickers and school supplies, the same stationery and toy wholesale market that has supplied Korean classrooms for decades. Look closer at the crowd, though, and something has changed. The customers digging through bins of colorful rubbery blobs are not elementary school students. They are mostly college students or young office workers in their 20s and 30s, many of them clutching phones open to Instagram, hunting for two very specific items — "mallangi" and "wakppu ball." The two toys have become Korea's unlikeliest trend. Mallangi, derived from the Korean word "mallang," meaning soft and squishy, refers to pliable rubber toys designed to be kneaded, stretched and squeezed. Wakppu ball takes the opposite approach. The palm-sized ball hides a soft filling inside a hard outer shell made of wax, and the entire point is to crush it. Press hard enough and the shell fract

Jul 9, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Young Koreans find peace in palm of their hands
K-pop

AHOF sprints toward love with 3rd EP 'RUN TO YOU'

K-pop boy band AHOF kicked off an all-out sprint toward its fans Wednesday, releasing its third EP "RUN TO YOU." Hours before the album drop, the nine members, Steven, Jeongwoo, Woongki, Shuaibo, Han, JL, Juwon, Chih En and Daisuke, met with the press at Yes24 Live Hall in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, to share the story behind the album and their thoughts on the comeback. "We're nervous, but only because we've worked so hard preparing this with all the members," said Steven, the group's leader and eldest member. "I feel both jittery and excited," Jeongwoo added. "Just like the title 'RUN TO YOU,' we're going to keep running full speed, so please keep your eyes on us." "RUN TO YOU" arrives eight months after the group's last release. According to the members, the new record captures "the resolve to charge straight toward the one you love without ever looking back." "We packed both our refreshing charm and a more intense side into this album," Jeongwoo said. "You'll see the AHOF you know, along with a fiercer look we haven't shown before. We've grown another step, so please watch us cl

Jul 8, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
AHOF sprints toward love with 3rd EP 'RUN TO YOU'
Books

Horror books for your summer reading list

Koreans have long known a secret about surviving the summer: fight heat with fear. For decades, the arrival of the monsoon season meant horror specials on Korean television, ghost stories and horror anthologies programmed precisely when tropical nights made sleep impossible. The logic, half science and half folklore, holds that a good shiver down the spine cools the body better than any electric fan. The tradition survives today in summer horror film releases and haunted house pop-ups that appear across Seoul every July. But for readers of English, there is now an alternate route to that seasonal chill, one that does not involve jump scares or formulaic slasher plots. Korean horror and crime fiction has quietly become one of the fastest-growing corners of translated literature, with a shelf of novels that trade cheap thrills for something colder and more lasting. The timing invites comparison with Japan. English-language publishers have spent the past decade riding a wave of translated Japanese mysteries, from Seishi Yokomizo's classic locked-room puzzles to Yukito Ayatsuji's "The Decago

Jul 7, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Horror books for your summer reading list
K-pop

MONSTA X's Kihyun trusts his gut on 'BORDERLINE'

With one day left before deadline, Kihyun of K-pop boy band MONSTA X has yet to choose the title track for his upcoming solo album, "BORDERLINE." The MONSTA X main vocalist had another song penciled in, but a nagging feeling would not leave him. So he did what the album itself is about — he trusted his own instinct and eventually went with "So Good," a rock-based track carried by delicate, technically demanding vocals. Kihyun has anchored MONSTA X as its main vocalist since the group debuted in 2015, with the voice that carries its choruses and its highest of notes across a decade of albums, tours and festival stages. Away from the six-member act, he has built a parallel solo identity rooted in belt-heavy rock, starting with the 2022 single "VOYAGER" and the mini-album "YOUTH." "I chose [the title track] with the mindset of trusting my own choice," Kihyun said in an interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday, at the Starship Entertainment headquarters in Gangnam District, Seoul. "And I think it really was a great choice." That decision anchored "BORDERLINE," Kihyun's second mini-album a

Jul 7, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
MONSTA X's Kihyun trusts his gut on 'BORDERLINE'
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