Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea

Kim Se-ui, head of the YouTube channel HoverLab, was detained on Tuesday on charges of spreading false claims that actor Kim Soo-hyun pressured the late actor Kim Sae-ron over debt repayment, allegedly contributing to her death in February of last year. The Seoul Central District Court approved the arrest warrant.

Before appearing in court, the YouTube channel runner insisted that the allegations were "filled with obvious falsehoods." The court nevertheless appears to have determined that a substantial portion of the accusations had merit.

According to the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul, which has investigated the case for more than a year, Kim Se-ui spread claims through YouTube and other platforms that Kim Soo-hyun had dated the actor while she was a minor and that financial pressure from the actor's side contributed to her death. Investigators also allege that AI technology was used to manipulate the actress's voice and fabricate KakaoTalk conversations.

The possibility that AI tools were used to create material difficult for the public to distinguish from reality is especially alarming. If the allegations outlined by police are accurate, the case represents not merely malicious misinformation but what many would describe as "character assassination."

As demonstrated by the damage allegedly inflicted on Kim Soo-hyun, sensational accusations generate explosive public attention and enormous online traffic. YouTube channels can reap substantial advertising revenue in the process. Yet for those targeted, the consequences can be devastating, undermining their mental well-being, public reputation and professional livelihood.

Such conduct is hardly new. So-called cyber wreckers, a Korean term describing online channels that profit from scandal-driven content, have repeatedly manipulated stories about celebrities or spread unverified rumors to maximize views and revenue. In some cases, operators have secretly filmed celebrities' private lives and attempted extortion. The practice of repackaging tragedy and gossip into monetized online entertainment has long crossed ethical boundaries.

Despite YouTube's growing influence, often rivaling that of traditional media, mechanisms for verifying truth remain dangerously weak. The platform's recommendation algorithms reward provocative content because outrage and controversy drive clicks and advertising income. At the same time, regulatory oversight remains insufficient.

The case also highlights broader concerns surrounding generative AI technology. Deepfake audio, fabricated messages and manipulated video can now spread rapidly before facts are verified. Once false information circulates online, the reputational damage is often irreversible even if later disproven.

That is why stronger safeguards against the harms associated with YouTube and AI-driven misinformation are urgently needed. Korea has repeatedly debated measures to address the social damage caused by online rumor channels, but meaningful regulation has lagged behind the speed of technological change.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Shin Ha-nee and read by an artificial voice.

K-pop's very first self-described "genderless" act XLOV is carving out a distinctive path, inviting listeners into a world of bold music, water-smooth choreography and boundary-blurring lifestyle.

"With this album, we wanted to portray XLOV as those who were once scarred and incomplete, becoming whole and evolving into divine beings who can guide those who are lost, just as they once were," said leader Wumuti during a press showcase for the boy band's second EP, "I, God," held at Gabin Art Hall in southern Seoul on Wednesday, the quartet's first press showcase since its 2025 debut.

Released Wednesday, "I, God" marks a "highlight" in the narrative XLOV has been building through its discography, according to Wumuti, who also servers the group's producer.

XLOV debuted in January last year under 257 Entertainment — which was acquired by K-pop agency RBW earlier this year — with its first single, "I'mma Be," becoming the first K-pop act to put forward a genderless concept at the forefront of its visual identity. The group's styling blurs the boundaries between feminine and masculine aesthetics, refusing to be confined by gender stereotypes.

The multinational boy band consists of four members: Wumuti from China, Rui from Taiwan, Hyun from Korea and Haru from Japan.

The second EP, "I, God," comes six months after its first EP, "UXLXVE." The album features six songs: the lead track, "Serve," and B-sides "The Rules," "Extancy," "Back 2 Back," "Hips" and "Masterpiece." "Extancy" is a duet track by Wumuti and Haru, and "Hips" likewise features Rui and Hyun.

The lead track, "Serve," is a song that producer Wumuti described as feeling "like watching a glamorous fantasy film," more so because of its relatively longer runtime compared to the usual two-minute mark of many K-pop releases.

"This is the first song in which we took on voguing dance to show a completely elegant, graceful and even more glamorous side of XLOV," Wumuti said. "We have always shown bold styles, but there is still so much more we want to show. It feels like we are not even halfway there yet, and with this album, I think we may have reached about 50 percent."

The music video for "Serve" features actor Han So-hee, a fan of XLOV who had previously told Wumuti that she would be willing to appear in one of the group's music videos someday — "even if it was just as an extra."

"I learned a lot from her, not only in terms of acting but also as a person," said Haru. "Thanks to her being there, the atmosphere on set became much lighter even though everyone being very tired."

While XLOV is best known for its gender-nonconforming visual elements, Wumuti stressed that the concept is not a one-off bid for attention.

"The genderless or gender-free concept we're best known for is part of the lifestyle we would like to show the world," said Wumuti. "I believe it is more about how I want to present myself to the world. There is no genderless music, so we have our own distinctive music, our own performance style — and the genderless concept is the lifestyle we'd like to suggest."

Looking ahead, the group wants to reach more people, building on its already solid and expanding global fan base which member Hyun attributed to "our unique fan culture where fans come to our concerts wearing our previous styles and makeup," and Rui to "our good music and strong performances we've honed for a long time."

"Our goal this time would be to win first place in the weekly music program," said Haru. "And I hope our message can reach those who don't know XLOV yet."

This article is by Jin Eun-soo and read by an artificial voice.

"I hope the true beauty of Korean heritage, also known as K-heritage, will become widely known [during the gathering]," President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday at Bexco in Busan after being briefed on preparations for the event by officials, including Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young and Korea Heritage Service (KHS) Administrator Huh Min.

"The driving force behind K-culture, which is leading the global culture, is undoubtedly K-heritage," Lee said. "Korea should stand at the forefront of building cooperation and solidarity within the global community amid climate crises, geopolitical risks and rapid development."

For Korea, the committee will decide on the nomination of "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats Phase 2," a proposal to add four new mudflat areas in South Jeolla and South Chungcheong to the existing four from Phase 1.

The July event marks the first time Korea has hosted the committee since joining the Unesco World Heritage Convention in 1988. President Lee called for "thorough and meticulous" preparation in transportation, accommodation and safety on Wednesday.

Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KHS will establish a K-Heritage House, a complex roughly the size of two football pitches, where aspects of Korea's culture will be showcased.

The space will be divided into four themes.

The Heritage Archive exhibition will showcase Korea's heritage inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list — 17 World Heritage sites, including 15 cultural and two natural properties, as well as 20 documentary heritage properties. The Living Heritage section will showcase demonstrations and performances of various forms of intangible heritage, while the Heritage Future and Collaboration Zone sections will feature experiential zones and digital content exhibitions.

A slew of live performances showcasing Korea's intangible heritage — including gatil, a performance centered on the traditional Korean hat gat; gut, a traditional Korean shamanic ritual; and Jongmyo Jeryeak, the ritual music performed at royal ancestral ceremonies — will take place on the sidelines.

The changing of the royal guard, normally held at Gyeongbok Palace and Deoksu Palace in central Seoul, will also be reenacted in Busan, marking the first time the event has been staged outside the capital.

"We are not hosting this event as a one-off, but with the ambition of taking a leading role in the global heritage field," Huh from the KHS said.

"As preparations are being carried out at the pan-government level, we will make sure that once the event concludes, people will say, 'As expected, it's Korea.'"

This article is by Jin Eun-soo and read by an artificial voice.

A new global initiative endorsed by the International Union for Conseration of Nature (IUCN), an advisory body to Unesco's World Heritage Convention, aims to change that by fortifying the role of geology in the realm of natural heritage.

The initiative introduces a new designation program called Key Geoheritage Areas (KGA), referring to sites with significant geological features — including rocks, minerals, fossils and soils — that represent past or ongoing Earth processes and deepen global understanding of the planet's history.

The initiative, aimed at expanding recognition for geoheritage sites worldwide, was officially adopted last year as an agenda item of the IUCN under the leadership of the Korea Heritage Service (KHS).

A global symposium on the initiative was held at Bexco, Busan on Wednesday with some 150 geology experts in attendance to discuss ways to develop a global platform for managing potential KGA sites around the world and Korea's possible role in the effort.

"Today marks the first meeting where discussions on how KGA should operate to preserve, maintain and further develop key geoheritage sites," said KHS Administrator Huh Min on Wednesday. "I am grateful that the first official meeting on KGA was able to be held in Korea."

"I hope today serves as a turning point for meaningful changes in geological heritage policies around the world and for practical measures that can be applied on the ground. I also hope the dinosaur fossil sites along Korea's southern coast, which have remained on Unesco's tentative list for decades, will finally earn their rightful place as a World Heritage site, and that international cooperation centered around the KGA will grow even stronger."

Two sites from Korea are currently inscribed as world natural heritage sites by the Unesco: getbol, or Korean tidal flats, and Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes.

Participants announced the "KGA Korea Declaration" following the symposium, outlining the initiative's vision and future plans.

Key participants of the symposium acknowledged KHS in playing an active role in establishing the foundations for the initiative.

"Korea Heritage Service was the only government agency to morally support the resolution of KGA," said Robbert Casier, a World Heritage Programme Development Officer at the IUCN.

"Because of the leadership of the KHS and Huh, this idea was able to be advanced. And now ICUN can help make the bridge between KGA heritage area initiative and World Heritage because we know how both frameworks work and our aim is to bring it all together in something coherent that actually leads to more world heritage sites in Korea and other parts of the world."

KGA plans to receive participants twice a year. It predicted that it would receive nominations for KGA designation by the end of this year.

This article is by Lee Jae-lim and read by an artificial voice.

[INTERVIEW]

Bifrost, a San Francisco-based startup, leverages computer vision and 3-D generation technologies to train so-called physical AI systems, a service that co-founder and CEO Charles Wong believes could meet the growing needs of Korean manufacturers and tech companies.

"There's a huge manufacturing base in Korea, and you build your own products ranging from semiconductors, electronics and motors — there's a nice big ecosystem of all these pieces coming together, which not many other countries have strong points in all of them," said Charles Wong, co-founder and CEO of Bifrost, in a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily during the AWS Summit Seoul 2026, held between Wednesday and Thursday at Coex in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

Bifrost has recently been eyeing expanding into the Korean market. Its current sole Korean customer is an autonomous maritime startup, Seadronix, to generate the synthetic training and testing data that the company uses to develop its autonomous ship navigation AI.

Bifrost is now building a similar platform centered on robotics, a push that has accelerated since Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared last year that physical AI and robotics represent the next major frontier. Wong sees Korea as the ideal market for that expansion.

"We just completed a successful trial with a major Korean company for home robotics use cases," he said. "This company is doing development for future generations of robotics products, and they want to use our tools to speed up development and enable new capabilities."

Beyond that trial, Bifrost is in talks with several Korean conglomerates about partnerships, which Wong said he looks forward to announcing when they are finalized.

Wong co-founded Bifrost in 2020 after working on AI perception models for self-driving cars at NuTonomy, an MIT spinout that ran the world's first autonomous taxi trial in Singapore in 2016. Even then, before AI had become part of daily life, he was convinced that autonomous technology would eventually reach every industry — from homes and factories to ships and aircraft.

"It was just a matter of when," he said. "So we thought about what the bottleneck was stopping AI from coming into the real world, and that was data. We had to find a better way to create huge amounts of organized data for physical AI to learn from, and that's how we landed on synthetic data."

Bifrost's core product is Stardust, a synthetic data platform that allows an AI developer with no simulation experience and no dedicated 3-D team to produce high-quality simulated environments for training AI models. Bifrost's goal is not to replace real-world data entirely, but to give developers a way to identify weaknesses in their AI systems early and cheaply — so by the time they move to expensive real-world testing, they already know exactly what to look for.

"A developer can go from zero to a ready dataset in about five minutes," Wong said.

Despite having a team of around 30 employees, Bifrost's customers span multiple sectors — from maritime and aerial to defense and government — including the U.S. Air Force, NASA and defense technology firm Anduril. The startup has raised a total of $13.7 million across four funding rounds, with the latest $8 million secured from Carbide Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Peak XV's Surge and several more.

Underpinning all of this is Bifrost's deep reliance on AWS infrastructure, which provides the computing power, storage and AI tooling that allow the company's simulation software to operate at scale.

"AWS has some great features that are really important to us," Wong said. "SageMaker lets us run inference workloads very quickly, which means our customers can validate their perception systems — basically test whether their AI can actually see and understand the world correctly — in a very short time.

"The other big one is Bedrock. Right now, our users write Python code to buil...

The author is a professor at Hallym University

"Did they lose?" my wife asked with concern.

"Huh?"

"The baseball game. You looked upset."

My evenings often depend on the result of the baseball team I support. On winning days, I wander through social media savoring the joy of victory. On losing days, I stay away from the internet and try to focus on other things. That evening, too, I was quietly working with a gloomy expression after another defeat.

Professional baseball is enjoying enormous popularity in Korea. More than 10 million spectators attend games annually, while fan culture has expanded through a growing ecosystem of online videos, commentary and merchandise. Yet people sometimes joke that "baseball fans are unhappy."

The logic is simple enough. Even the league's best team loses two out of every five games. If the team one supports spends years near the bottom of the standings, disappointment can feel endless. Some even argue that repeated defeats may harm mental health or increase emotional stress in daily life.

A similar argument appears in psychology. Experiences in which people desperately hope for a result but cannot influence it may produce feelings of helplessness. Repeated often enough, such experiences can contribute to negative emotions. Fans who strongly identify themselves with a team may also internalize defeat as if it were their own failure, experiencing real psychological pain and frustration after losses.

If that were entirely true, baseball fans would essentially be paying money and spending time only to damage their emotional well-being.

But these negative effects generally apply only to people who excessively equate themselves with a team's identity. Overall, baseball fans — especially those who attend games in person — tend to report relatively high life satisfaction. Watching games together with fellow supporters and sharing both victory and defeat can also function as a form of social reward and emotional connection.

The joy of victory is sweet and the pain of defeat bitter. Yet perhaps the sadness of losing is not entirely harmful. There is happiness in sharing triumph and disappointment with others while learning to accept the outcome in a healthy way.

Recently, I read an article about elementary school sports days eliminating winners and losers altogether by declaring every event a draw. But rather than erasing defeat, perhaps schools and society should teach children how to comfort one another through disappointment and how to experience loss without humiliation.

That, too, may be part of becoming a mature community.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

Shin June-bong

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

President Lee Jae Myung, who has more than 1.11 million followers on X, formerly Twitter, posted criticism on Saturday about excessive apartment maintenance fees in Korea's shared residential buildings. Although many residents would benefit if such costs were reduced, the post drew only about 310,000 views.

By contrast, Lee's posts condemning Starbucks Korea over its controversial May 18 marketing campaign attracted millions of views. A May 20 post criticizing Musinsa's old sock advertisement using the phrase "He hit the desk and died with an 'ugh,'" referencing democracy activist Park Jong-chul, drew 7.51 million views. Another post criticizing Starbucks Korea's "Tank Day" tumbler promotion on May 18 surpassed 5.25 million views.

The difference reflects how deeply divisive such controversies remain. Critics argue that phrases like "Tank Day" and "hit the desk" appearing on symbolic dates linked to Korea's democracy movements seem too coincidental to dismiss lightly. If intentional, many view them as malicious acts that defy common sense.

Whether Lee's aggressive criticism of Starbucks will influence next week's local elections remains to be seen. But the debate is already expanding beyond one company's marketing failure into a broader discussion about how Korean society should confront far-right online culture, particularly communities associated with Ilbe, a far-right online community long criticized for hate speech, misogyny and mockery of democratic movements.

On Sunday, Lee suggested "under strict conditions" that shutting down Ilbe could be considered. Since then, commentators and scholars who have studied online extremism have weighed in on the issue.

Questions have also emerged over whether Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin truly knew nothing about the Starbucks promotion beforehand. According to the company's explanation on Tuesday, Chung had not been informed in advance because hundreds of marketing events occur each year and this campaign bypassed proper review procedures, including legal screening.

At a press conference, Chung repeatedly accepted final responsibility. Yet some observers argued that the chairman's widely discussed conservative political leanings may have helped create a corporate atmosphere in which employees felt comfortable engaging in what critics call "Ilbe-style behavior." Others cautioned that such claims remain speculative and difficult to verify even through police investigations.

Attention has instead focused on reports that three employees involved in planning the campaign refused to hand over their mobile phones during the company's internal investigation. Some analysts interpreted that decision as preparation for possible police scrutiny. If digital forensics were to uncover evidence of deliberate coordination, it could seriously damage Ilbe-affiliated online culture.

Still, many doubt whether shutting down the Ilbe website itself would achieve much. One cultural critic described the proposal as "shadow-boxing with a ghost from the past," arguing that the site has already become largely inactive. According to that view, younger extremists today operate mainly through social media platforms, online gaming communities and private chat spaces rather than traditional internet forums.

Lee Soo-jong, a specialist member at the Press Arbitration Commission, also questioned whether site closures would be effective or legally feasible. He noted that even Germany, known for strict measures against hate speech and historical denialism, has not generally responded by shutting down far-right websites altogether.

Democratic Party campaign chief Jung Chung-rae has meanwhile proposed stronger legislation punishing mockery or distortion of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and other pro-democracy movements, citing Germany as an example. Under current Korean law, however, punishment is difficult because statements ...

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo

"The cost of success."

Kim Yong-beom, chief presidential policy secretary, used those words as the title of another lengthy Facebook post on Sunday. In his explanation, today's "three highs" — high interest rates, high inflation and a high dollar-won exchange rate — are supposedly "the unavoidable cost of Korea's leap into a new stage of economic growth."

Kim argued that the three highs, normally interpreted as warning signs of economic distress, should instead be understood not as "signals of crisis" but as the "friction noise" accompanying national advancement. Confusion arises, he wrote, when people misread those sounds as evidence of danger. He added that using "outdated grammar" to interpret a "new era" inevitably leads to misguided responses and insisted that what Korea now needs is "the insight to recognize changed realities."

The language itself was striking: "cost," "friction noise," "misreading," "grammar," "interpretation," "insight." Put more plainly, the message seemed to be this: People simply fail to understand the government's economic achievements and mistakenly treat them as policy failures. Since the era of the three highs has become the new normal, citizens should accept a dollar-won exchange rate above 1,500 and gasoline prices exceeding 2,000 won per liter ($5 per gallon) without complaint.

Whether this represents, as the ruling party claims, the Lee Jae Myung administration's economic philosophy or merely, as the opposition argues, rhetorical maneuvering to conceal policy failures is beside the point. Nor is it necessary to dwell on why one of the president's closest economic advisers continues to provoke controversy through personal social media posts instead of quietly offering policy guidance behind the scenes, particularly only weeks after confusion surrounding the proposed national dividend policy.

More unsettling is the way Kim attempts to redefine reality through language itself. His argument recalls "Newspeak," the propaganda language used by the authoritarian state of Oceania in George Orwell's "1984" (1949). Orwell warned that those who control language ultimately control reality. By eliminating dangerous words and replacing them with politically convenient expressions such as "Freedom is slavery," power can reshape public perception.

Kim's remarks carry a similar undertone. The word "crisis" disappears while the suffering caused by the three highs is redefined as a mere "cost." Few Koreans are unaware that soaring prices, interest rates and exchange rates place severe pressure on households, especially low-income families. Imported goods become more expensive, grocery carts grow lighter and debt burdens increase steadily. For many people, daily life itself becomes painful.

Yet once a senior official reframes that hardship as a "cost," the three highs are no longer treated as policy problems the government must solve. Instead, they become burdens ordinary citizens are expected to endure for the sake of broader economic goals. The implication is difficult to ignore: Individual suffering may simply be viewed as an acceptable by-product of achieving government-defined success.

A seemingly unrelated controversy involving Starbucks reveals a similar pattern. President Lee recently criticized the company over marketing connected to the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, drawing accusations that the administration was excessively politicizing the issue.

If Starbucks Korea intentionally promoted the event in a mocking or hateful way, criticism would be justified. Even if it resulted merely from negligence, companies should bear responsibility for creating unnecessary social conflict through careless messaging. Declining sales or damage to brand credibility would naturally follow.

But a different issue emerges when the president personally condemns a company before the facts are fully established. Shortly after the controversy surfaced, ...

Exchange-traded funds (ETF) tracking Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shares at twice their daily movement are set to debut on Korea's stock market on Wednesday, raising concerns that the government may be prioritizing market stimulus over financial stability.

The products include 16 leveraged ETFs designed to deliver gains or losses equal to two times the daily movement of the underlying shares, along with two inverse ETFs that move in the opposite direction. The combined value of the planned listings amounts to 4.32 trillion won ($2.88 billion).

More than 130,000 investors have already completed mandatory education courses required to purchase the products. Industry estimates suggest the launch could attract more than 5 trillion won in fresh investment funds.

These ETFs are considered extremely high-risk products because leverage magnifies both gains and losses. Given Korea's daily stock price movement limit of 30 percent, investors could theoretically record gains or losses of up to 60 percent in a single day.

The risks become even greater when share prices move sideways over an extended period. In such cases, the so-called negative compounding effect can rapidly erode returns, potentially wiping out an investor's principal entirely.

Because of those risks, financial authorities had previously refused to allow leveraged or inverse ETFs tied to individual stocks. The government's position changed late last year after the sharp rise in the won-dollar exchange rate accelerated investment by retail investors into overseas markets.

Authorities appear to have approved the Samsung Electronics and SK hynix products partly to lure individual investors back into Korea's domestic market. The concern, however, is that such products could pour fuel onto an already overheated market and sharply increase volatility.

The Kospi, which closed above the 8,000-point threshold for the first time on Tuesday, already ranks among the world's most volatile major indexes. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the underlying assets of the ETFs, also experience frequent sharp swings in share prices.

Because the two companies together account for nearly half of the Kospi's total market capitalization, concentrated inflows into the leveraged ETFs could destabilize not only the two stocks themselves but the broader Korean market.

Although the Kospi has surged enough to become the world's seventh-largest stock market by capitalization, underlying conditions remain fragile.

Margin lending balances have also climbed to a record 36 trillion won. Despite mounting uncertainty surrounding the market, the government is considering additional measures to support stock prices, including increasing the National Pension Service's allocation to domestic equities.

Stimulating the market cannot become the government's sole priority. Authorities must also strengthen safeguards against the shocks that excessive volatility could bring.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Shin Ha-nee and read by an artificial voice.

Boy band AND2BLE may have just debuted, but its lineup is hardly new to the K-pop scene.

Made up of some of the most recognizable faces from Mnet's hit audition program "Boys Planet" (2023), the five-member group is stepping beyond its past success to start anew — this time, on its own terms.

"The first thing that came to mind when I learned that the five of us would be debuting together was that we have a really strong lineup," said leader Zhang Hao during a press showcase for the group's debut held in central Seoul on Tuesday. "We all have extensive stage experience, so not only we can perform better together, but we also know how precious it is to have to a chance to stand on stage."

Member Yoo Seung-eon echoed the sentiment, stressing that the five members have spent their younger years training together under YH Entertainment.

"I felt confident, thinking with the five of us, we might be able to make history in the K-pop scene," said Yoo. "We were together during our trainee days, so I believe we can make a strong team built on trust and comfort."

AND2BLE, pronounced "and-double," combines the words "and" and "double," reflecting the idea that different sides of one's inner self can overlap and expand into a fuller sense of identity, according to its agency YH Entertainment.

AND2BLE consists of five members: former ZeroBaseOne members Zhang, Ricky, Kim Gyu-vin and Han Yu-jin, and former EVNNE member Yoo.

The four former ZeroBaseOne members were among the nine winners of Mnet's boy band audition program "Boys Planet" (2023), which formed the project group. Zhang finished in first place, followed by Ricky in fourth, Kim in seventh and Han in ninth.

After ZeroBaseOne's two-year-and-nine-month contract ended, the four members returned to their original agency, YH Entertainment, while the remaining five members continued as ZeroBaseOne.

Yoo also competed on "Boys Planet," but did not make the final lineup after finishing in 16th place. He later debuted as a member of EVNNE, a boy band made up of other "Boys Planet" contestants who fell short of the final roster. With the launch of AND2BLE, Yoo joins the four former ZeroBaseOne members to form a new quintet.

Although Yoo had been in a different group from the rest of his new bandmates, he said their teamwork remained strong because of the close bond they built as trainees.

"Though we have been apart for a while, we were able to prepare our album in a comfortable, fun atmosphere," he said. "I joined the team after discussions with the company, which came when I was deliberating about my future. As this is a new start, I wanted to give my best in preparing for it."

Regardless, the five members said they all remain close with their former bandmates, they said, exchanging messages of support.

"As we had spent a long time together, we still remain close," said Zhang. "We truly wish each other success sincerely cheering one another on."

AND2BLE's debut EP, "Sequence 01: Curiosity," features five songs: the lead track "Curious" and B-sides "Aura," "Sugar Rush," "Bed" and "Happy &." Zhang is credited for participating in writing lyrics for "Curious" and "Happy &," Ricky for "Curious" and "Aura," and Kim for "Happy &."

The lead track, "Curious," is an intense EDM song that blends synth pop and future house. The agency described the track as capturing the confidence of facing changes sparked by dangerous curiosity.

"We've explored the concept of curiosity in this album because it fits where we are now well as we take our first step," said Kim. "There's this instinctive curiosity and excitement one feels at the beginning of something new, and I hope the album makes you curious about AND2BLE."

Looking ahead, AND2BLE aims to become a group that fans can be proud to support.

"As AND2BLE, our ultimate goal is to become a group that fans can proudly say they support," said Han. "So we want to do our best at every moment an...