Day: June 29, 2023

The producer of K-pop girl group Fifty Fifty’s hit song “Cupid” on Thursday refuted its agency’s claims in connection with their exclusive contracts and the song’s copyright in an intensifying legal dispute over the rookie group.

The Givers, a content creation company led by Ahn Sung-il, also known as SIAHN, denied entertainment agency Attrakt’s claims that he attempted to poach the quartet and secretly registered the song’s copyright on his own.

The Givers said Ahn did not attempt to lure its members to sign another contract with a third party and it had already owned the copyright of “Cupid” even before the Fifty Fifty project began.

Ahn produced and co-wrote the lyrics for “Cupid,” and three other Swedish producers composed the song.

“The allegations Attrakt unveiled to the media are completely false,” The Givers said in a statement. “We have maintained a neutral position between Attrakt and Fifty Fifty members.”

On Tuesday, Attrakt said it had reported Ahn and three others to the police for alleged obstruction of business, destroying electronic documents, fraud and breach of trust over a litany of wrongdoings.

The next day, the members unveiled that they had filed for an injunction to suspend their exclusive contracts with Attrakt, citing lack of financial transparency and driving them hard without considering their health condition.

The Givers, which is in charge of managing intellectual property, as well as producing albums and managing groups as an external vendor of Attrack, said it faithfully fulfilled its contract terms and played a bridging role between the agency and members.

“Although Attrakt and its CEO Jeon Hong-joon are well aware of these facts, they spread false information and therefore defamed The Givers, its CEO and employees and obstructed its business,” the company said.

The legal dispute comes just seven months after Fifty Fifty’s debut, which shed light on the small-sized entertainment agency’s successful marketing strategy in the global market.

The K-pop quartet made its debut in November and quickly rose to global fame after becoming the fastest K-pop group to enter the U.S. Billboard’s Hot 100 songs chart with “Cupid.” The song has stayed on the chart and the British Official Singles Chart for 13 weeks in a row, making Fifty Fifty the longest-staying K-pop girl group on both charts.

The group is currently taking a temporary break as one member recently underwent surgery and will require an additional one or two months for recovery, according to its agency.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

With most of the country drenched by heavy rainfall at the onset of the monsoon season this week, South Korean baseball clubs have begun discussing ways to squeeze canceled games into a tight window.

Through Wednesday, 31 games in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) have been canceled due to either rain or fine dust problems, and that number is certain to increase this week and beyond during the annual rainy season, which is expected to last longer this year than in the recent past.

KBO officials met with general managers of the league’s 10 clubs earlier this week to go over scheduling issues. Though they didn’t reach any consensus on how to go about making up canceled games, playing doubleheaders and scheduling games on Monday — typically the lone off day of a week during the season — were discussed.

The league office will also listen to what managers on the field have to say before deciding on makeup games.

Skippers and players in the KBO have long balked at playing two a day or playing on Mondays, citing fatigue and resultant risks of injury. Some managers in seasons past also complained that they didn’t have enough pitching to play seven days a week.

KBO teams had to play a few doubleheaders and also go to work on Mondays during the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season, when the start of the regular season was pushed back by more than a month. Even with a shortened postseason, the Korean Series ended on Nov. 24 that year, the latest conclusion to a season in KBO history.

This year, the KBO will try to crown the Korean Series champions by early November, with under-24 players from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan scheduled to play in the Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) in the middle of that month.

The regularly-scheduled portion of the season ends on Sept. 10. From that point on, canceled games will be made up.

Through Wednesday, the Kia Tigers had lost the most games with 10, followed by eight each for the NC Dinos and the Lotte Giants.

The Kiwoom Heroes, based in the league’s only domed stadium, Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, have only lost two games, both on the road.

KBO teams will send players to the national team for the Asian Games in the fall but, in a departure from past Asian Games, the KBO regular season will not go on a break during the continental competition.

The Heroes, the Dinos and the LG Twins will each have three players compete at the Asiad, while the Doosan Bears have just one. With their key players gone for the stretch drive, the three clubs with three Asiad representatives will have different reasons for preferring doubleheaders or Monday games than other clubs with fewer national team members.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

economic zones (FEZs) and create 450,000 jobs there by 2032 to make them global hubs of advanced industries and businesses, the industry ministry said Thursday.

Under the draft of the comprehensive 10-year development plan, the government aims to attract the investment from domestic and foreign entities in key leading sectors and build smart, eco-friendly international cities in cooperation with municipal governments, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The country has designated nine FEZs across the country since 2003, including those in the western city of Incheon and the southeastern port city of Busan, by offering tax incentives and eased regulations for foreign companies.

The government will finalize the plan by around August after consultations with relevant ministries, it added.

Meanwhile, the government approved the modification of the land use rules regarding Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, to allow the establishment of a fine art storage facility there.

Last year, Incheon International Airport Corp. signed an agreement with Arshexa Corp. for the development and operation of the world’s largest-scale art storage at the airport.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

One of the most successful weightlifters in Olympic history, Jang Mi-ran will now be South Korea’s top Cabinet official in sports.

Jang, the 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion, was named the second vice minister of culture, sports and tourism Thursday.

The ministry has two vice ministers, with the first vice minister, Chun Byong-keuk, overseeing cultural and tourism affairs, and Jang set to oversee sports-related matters under Culture Minister Park Bo-gyoon.

Thursday’s appointment is the latest feather in the cap for the 39-year-old, who had been in academia since her retirement in 2013.

Jang is the third elite athlete to become the second vice minister of sports, following former shooter Park Jong-gil and ex-swimmer Choi Yoon-hee.

Jang has a far more decorated athletic resume than those two predecessors.

Competing in the +75kg category, Jang won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics with a then world record total of 326kg. She also broke world records in the snatch with 140kg, and in the clean and jerk with 186kg.

This gold medal was sandwiched by silver in 2004 and bronze in 2012, her final Olympic Games, held in London. Jang is the only female weightlifter to win a medal in three consecutive Olympics.

Jang won four consecutive world titles, starting in 2005. Only three female lifters have won more world championships in the competition’s history, dating to 1987.

Jang had a late start to her weightlifting career, compared with other elite lifters, and picked up her first barbell in 1999, while still in middle school.

Only five years later, though, Jang captured silver at the Athens Olympics with a total of 302.5kg. She and the gold medalist from China, Tang Gonghong, were the only ones to surpass 300kg in total.

Jang then obliterated the competition in Beijing four years later with her record-breaking performance, becoming the first South Korean female weightlifter to win an Olympic gold. No one came even close to lifting 300kg in total. The silver and bronze medalists then, Olha Korobka of Ukraine (277kg) and Mariya Grabovetskaya of Kazakhstan (270kg), were both stripped of their medals after testing positive for banned substances.

Jang battled shoulder pains at the 2012 Olympics in London, originally finishing in fourth place with 289kg total. She was elevated to the bronze medal four years later, when the third-place finisher from Armenia, Hripsime Khurshudyan, was disqualified for doping.

During her athletic career, Jang was known as a studious type. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Korea University in 2010. Two years later, Jang earned a master’s degree in physical education at Sungshin Women’s University.

In 2015, Jang got a doctorate in physical education at Yong In University. She became a professor at the same school in 2016. After studying at Kent State University, starting in 2017, Jang rejoined Yong In’s faculty in 2021.

Jang pursued a seat on the Athletes’ Commission at the International Olympic Committee but lost out to the 2004 Olympic table tennis champion Ryu Seung-min in a race to become the South Korean candidate in 2015.

Jang has also been helping young athletes with scholarships through her namesake foundation created in 2012. The foundation has so far aided Olympic athletes in judo, table tennis and diving.

Source: Yonhap News Agency