Former IZ*ONE member Jang Won-young to join new girl group

By Dong Sun-hwa

Jang Won-young, a former member of now-defunct K-pop act IZ*ONE, will join a soon-to-debut girl group named IVE, according to her management company Starship Entertainment Thursday.

Starship released two photos featuring Jang on IVE's official Twitter account, which already has more than 139,000 followers.

IVE is the company's first girl group since Cosmic Girls (WJSN) that debuted in 2016. So far, Starship ― which also houses popular boy group Monsta X ― has unveiled three out of six members including Ahn Yu-jin, Ga-eul and Jang Won-young.

Ahn, who also was part of IZ*ONE, is the leader of the new group. Ga-eul is a rapper and Jang is a vocalist.

According to Starship, the group's name is a short form of “I have.”

“As its name suggests, IVE will try to show people everything it has,” the company said in a statement Thursday.

More information about the six-piece act, such as the date of its debut and the title of its debut track, have been kept under wraps.

Jang, 17, was catapulted to fame in 2018 after winning the third season of Mnet's audition program, “Produce 101” and joining IZ*ONE. The team, which was made up of nine Korean and three Japanese members, debuted in 2018 with the album, “COLOR*IZ,” and rolled out a series of hits including “Violeta” (2019) and “Secret Story of the Swan” (2020) until its dissolution in 2021.

In 2019, IZ*ONE was hit hard by Mnet's vote-rigging scandal involving Ahn Joon-young, the director of all four seasons of "Produce 101," who received a two-year prison term for his involvement in the fraudulent incident.