Category: K-Wave

BTS's official channel, BANGTANTV, posted a teaser on September 30 for a new episode set in Toronto. In the video, the members sit around a park and talk about trying the games they used to play on school picnics. There's a running game, followed by a Korean-style game of tag. The banter turns playful, too, as they debate whether it's better to throw water or get hit with it as a penalty.

Later in the clip, the members trade rallies in a pickleball match. They've said themselves that they recently got hooked on the sport while on the world tour.

The air dates, per SBS, are October 6 and 11, both at 8 p.m. Korea time. That said, a late-March report said the first teaser for 'Run BTS 2.0' dropped March 30 and that the first episode would air April 7 at 9 p.m. Outlets differ on the season format and dates, so the safest move is to check the official channel for the exact schedule.

'Run BTS' began in 2015 as a self-produced variety show where the members take on games and missions themselves. It ran 155 episodes through 2021 and drew about 140 million views. In 2022 and 2023, 10 special episodes came out separately and passed roughly 130 million views. Jin also launched a spinoff, 'Run Seokjin,' in 2024 and 2025. The series returned after a three-year break, following April's album 'Arirang' and new single 'SWIM,' which both hit No. 1 on Billboard's album and singles charts.

Namoo Actors announced the marriage of Koo Kyo-hwan and director Lee Ok-seop on October 1. The paperwork was filed in 2022, so the news came out roughly four years later. Koo is 44 and Lee is 39. The couple skipped a ceremony and handled only the legal formalities.

The agency said the two support each other as colleagues at work and as family at home. It added that they will keep meeting audiences with new work in their own fields.

The pair are alumni of the Seoul Institute of the Arts. They grew close in 2013 while making the short film *4th Grader Bo-kyung* (title translated literally), and they became a couple. Since then they've made a string of shorts and features together, including *Maggie* and *Romeo: The Crime of Having Eyes* (literal title). They went public with the relationship in 2020. Their roughly nine years together, from 2013 to 2022, ended in marriage.

The collaboration is ongoing. They co-run a YouTube channel, '2x9HD Koo Kyo-hwan × Lee Ok-seop,' and have posted videos as recently as this month. Both have also been credited on projects like *Your Country*, starring Jang Do-yeon, and *The Love Counselor*, featuring Lee Na-young (both titles translated literally).

Art lover RM's collection is heading to a museum wall for the first time. San Francisco's SFMOMA has announced a collaborative show opening Oct. 3, subtitled 'Between You and Me,' that runs through Feb. 7, 2027. SFMOMA, which opened in 1935, is one of the best-known modern and contemporary art museums in the US.

In all, about 180 works are on view. Roughly 140 come from the collection RM has been building for nearly a decade, and the rest are drawn from the museum's own holdings. RM's collection centers on modern and contemporary Korean artists, including Yun Hyong-keun, Chang Ucchin, Yoo Youngkuk, Kim Tschang-yeul and Do Sang-bong. Yun, reportedly a particular favorite of RM's, gets a dedicated gallery with 16 works.

RM was more than a lender. Working with SFMOMA curators América Castillo and Hyoeun Kim, RM chose the works and shaped the flow of the show. RM wrote the wall texts and object labels in both Korean and English, and recorded the audio guide in both languages. The music playing in the galleries is RM's pick, too. RM has described the show as a long introduction to who RM is.

The most striking part is the way works from different eras and places are set up in pairs. Kim Whanki's blue dot painting hangs alongside a sponge sculpture by Yves Klein, famous for his signature blue, inviting a comparison of how color is used to contemplate the cosmos and infinity. Do Sang-bong's still life is matched with a flower painting by Giorgio Morandi, and Yun's work with a piece by minimalist Donald Judd. Yun and Judd actually knew each other, so that pairing carries a personal connection.

The collecting began in 2018. In an August interview with The New York Times, RM recalled seeing Western masterpieces at the Art Institute of Chicago during a US tour and feeling embarrassed at how little RM knew about Korea's own artists. Determined to find those roots, RM began seeking out Korean artists, and that journey led to this show.

'Assassin(s)' hit theaters on Sept. 23, just ahead of the Chuseok (Korean harvest holiday) break. On the 29th, former Seoul city councilor Lee Jong-bae submitted paperwork to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency accusing director Heo Jin-ho, the studio's CEO and the screenwriter of defamation. Lee argues that the film steers its story so that former President Park Chung-hee appears to be the man behind the killing. He also pointed to the title, plural rather than singular, as a hint that perpetrators other than Moon Se-kwang may have been involved.

The film draws on a shooting at a 1974 Liberation Day ceremony that killed Yuk Young-soo, the first lady at the time. The man named as the gunman, Moon Se-kwang, was a second-generation Korean resident of Japan. Investigators concluded that he acted on orders from North Korea and Chongryon, the pro-Pyongyang association of Koreans in Japan. The film views that conclusion, and what lay behind it, with suspicion, and even raises the possibility that the upper ranks of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency staged the incident to break a political deadlock. Some in political circles have criticized that setup as a distortion aimed at a specific individual.

Hive Media Corp drew a line under the controversy in a statement on the 28th. It said the film is a work of fiction that draws on surviving records and adds imagination, with no intent to deny or overturn established facts. The Park Chung-hee Memorial Foundation, however, said the film damages historical fact and demanded that the studio apologize and halt screenings.

The fallout is showing up at the box office too. According to the Korean Film Council's integrated ticketing network, 'Assassin(s)' drew about 67,000 viewers on the 28th, trailing 'Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub' at about 69,000. Tazza pulled in more than 130,000 viewers on its opening day, ending a 49-day run at No. 1 for 'Odyssey,' and topped 1 million admissions over the holiday. Media outlets point to the history-distortion fight as a reason for the slide.

At a theater in Los Angeles, one of the night's biggest moments belonged to Lisa. Heading into the ceremony, she had racked up four nominations — Best Pop among them, alongside Cinematography, Editing, and the K-pop category — and Best Pop, one of the show's marquee awards, is the one she actually took home.

What makes the win significant is that it's a solo achievement. Asian acts have won the category before, but always as groups; Lisa is the first solo artist from K-pop, or the broader Asian music scene, to pull it off. She got visibly emotional on stage, and the crowd cheered her on.

BTS's night was also worth watching. Their nomination, for a track off their latest studio album, put them in the running for the ceremony's top honor — the same category Blackpink's Rosé won last year with her duet alongside a pop star, marking K-pop's first-ever win there. A BTS win would make it two years running for K-pop in that category.

Elsewhere, Jennie and rookie group Katseye each landed nominations for separate songs, while Cortis and Le Sserafim joined the race in K-pop-specific categories. Having so many K-pop acts — groups and soloists alike — up for awards at once is generating plenty of buzz on its own.

The ceremony, which got its start in the mid-1980s, has long stood alongside the Grammys and Billboard Music Awards as one of the US music industry's key barometers.

President Lee Jae-myung, on a state visit to Mexico, drew attention by stopping at a local Korean Wave (Hallyu) event with First Lady Kim Hye-kyung. The two toured a Korean goods and culture expo set up at Mexico City's World Trade Center, checking in on how Korean companies are expanding into Latin America.

At the booth for Cake, a Naver affiliate, they observed a program that teaches Korean using BTS content; Kim asked about pricing after showing interest in learning the language through song lyrics. At Amorepacific's booth, the president tried an AI-powered skin analyzer that measured his hydration and pores — and when the company's CEO raised concerns about Mexico's tariff hikes, Lee followed up by asking for specifics on how steep the increases were. The delegation also checked out Kia's hybrid SUV, LG Electronics' transparent OLED display, and a Samsung Electronics showcase, plus sampled ice cream, ramen, and household goods at the Binggrae, Nongshim, and LG Household & Health Care booths.

The two then made an unplanned stop at an impromptu K-pop dance-along where a local dance crew and roughly 150 fans had gathered for 'random play dance' — a format where a shuffled playlist of K-pop hits cues fans to perform each song's choreography from memory. When the emcee hit play on a BTS track, the crowd broke into the routine and the couple applauded. Lee encouraged the dancers to keep being people who bring others joy through song and dance, while Kim recalled hearing how enthusiastically fans had responded when BTS visited the same country back in May. Afterward, at a Korea-Mexico business exchange attended by roughly 300 corporate and government officials from both countries, Lee said he hopes trade agreement talks can resume given how well the two economies' industrial structures complement each other.

In the afternoon, the couple visited Zona Rosa, a neighborhood known locally as 'Little Seoul,' to catch up with Korean expats. The district has been home to a Korean community since the 1990s, and that evening the president crossed paths with residents grabbing Korean food before a Stray Kids concert and young fans holding light sticks. A presidential office official said the visit was meant to check in on the daily lives of Koreans building a life abroad and strengthen ties between the two countries' peoples.

Pollstar, the concert industry's go-to data tracker, released its rankings of the top-grossing tours from mid-November 2025 through mid-August 2026 — and BTS' 'Arirang' world tour came out on top worldwide. The group's label, Big Hit Music, touted the news as proof the tour's momentum shows no signs of slowing.

Since launching in April 2026, the tour has played 38 shows and drawn more than 2.3 million fans. Total revenue landed in the mid-₩600 billion range — north of $460 million. That figure had already overtaken Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Tour, last year's top earner, which grossed roughly ₩557 billion, based on data through mid-August alone.

By city, Las Vegas sold the most tickets. A four-night run at a major arena there in May drew more than 240,000 fans and brought in over ₩91 billion (about $66 million) in ticket sales. Pollstar projects the tour's momentum will continue.

BTS' next stop is South America. Starting in Colombia's capital, the group will play 14 shows across five cities — also including Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil — with some stops adding extra dates due to demand. The group is also set to perform at an awards show in Los Angeles later this month, widening its reach even further.

The chart performance backs up the touring numbers. The group's latest studio album has stayed on the main U.S. albums chart for more than six months, and the title track remains near the top of charts outside the U.S. as well as global aggregate rankings. Between the tour and the charts, the group continues to demonstrate outsized global pull.

The opening title card of 'Silmido,' the film that premiered in late 2003 and has been widely discussed ever since, has recently been changed. South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said on the 23rd that it replaced the original text — which portrayed the unit's members as violent criminals — with wording clarifying that the depiction doesn't match historical fact.

The change was prompted by the victims' families. After the bereaved families' association of the Silmido unit asked for the distorted portrayal to be corrected, the Ministry of National Defense requested in July that the film's distributor revise the subtitle. The distributor agreed, and the new version has been running in actual theatrical screenings since early this month.

The new text states that portraying the unit's members as special criminals, death-row inmates, or life-sentence prisoners doesn't align with the historical record. It also notes that a past-history fact-finding body under the Ministry of National Defense and South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission separately confirmed that none of the unit's members were death-row or life-sentence inmates, and that a large share were ordinary civilians. Previously, the film carried only a note distinguishing its fictional trainee characters from an unrelated real infiltration unit — without correcting the broader misconception about the members' backgrounds.

The Silmido unit was formed in early 1968, following a North Korean commando infiltration into Seoul. Thirty-one agents were recruited for the cross-border mission, seven of whom died during brutal training. The remaining 24 left the base during a breakout in the summer of 1971, killed several officers, and headed toward Seoul, clashing with military and police forces along the way — 20 died in the confrontation. The four survivors who were captured were sentenced to death, and the sentences were carried out the following year.

The Ministry of National Defense said it hopes the subtitle change helps restore the honor of the unit's members and their families. A ministry-affiliated body already acknowledged human rights violations tied to the case back in 2006, recommending an apology and the recovery of remains — making this latest step a belated follow-up.

According to the agency, Lee Hyori, Ok Joo-hyun, Lee Jin and Sung Yuri are once again coming together to prepare official group activities. No detailed schedule has been set, but the agency says it plans to roll out updates in stages over the coming weeks.

It's been a long time since all four have kept up sustained activity under one team name. The last comparable chapter dates back to a digital single release in 2005. There was a brief reunion after that — the four came back together for a new song tied to a television variety show — but that project was widely seen as a one-off built around a broadcast schedule rather than an ongoing comeback.

The four members broke into the K-pop scene in the late 1990s and quickly racked up a string of hits, becoming one of the defining acts of Korea's first generation of girl groups. They moved fluidly between innocent, girl-next-door concepts and bolder, more assertive ones, and regularly swept year-end music awards shows during their peak.

Since the group went quiet, each member has built her own career. One became known for variety shows and solo records, another rose to the top ranks of Korea's musical theater scene, and the other two split time between acting and broadcasting. This new project will reportedly be organized by the agency in partnership with affiliated companies.

The seven-member group returned to the center stage of a major US festival after a long absence. According to the group's label, BTS closed out the festival's multi-artist opening night, taking the final slot of the evening. Given that their last appearance at this festival came before the pandemic, it marked the end of a considerable gap.

The setlist notably led with tracks from their newly released album. They opened against a backdrop of rippling water visuals on the arena's massive screens, followed by a song set against the glittering nighttime skyline of the host city. As the set moved into older hits, the screens showed a journey from a narrow passage out into vast space, before the performance closed with an image of seven fireballs falling across a desert landscape — a visual echo of the group's seven members.

During preparations, the members reportedly expressed gratitude to the fans who have supported them over the years. They were said to be especially struck that the crowd sang along even though most of their songs are in Korean.

A number of top artists across genres also performed at the festival alongside BTS. On night two, a girl group from the same label is set to take the stage — reportedly the first time a K-pop girl group has performed at the festival, following in the footsteps of their label's senior act.