SEOUL, July 29 (Yonhap) -- Members of popular boy band GOT7, who left their long-time agency JYP Entertainment earlier this year, are stepping up their music activities through solo projects. The seven-piece act -- consisting of Mark, Jay B, Jackson, Jinyoung, Youngjae, BamBam and Yugyeom -- in January left JYP after seven years without renewing their exclusive contract. On Thursday, the band's Hong Kong-born member Jackson released the single "Drive You Home," which he penned and produced the music video for. Jackson has set up his own label Team Wang and has partnered with Seoul-based Sublime Artist Agency. Jinyoung, who signed with BH Entertainment that represents actors like Lee Byung-hun and Yoo Ji-tae, is set to release the self-written song "Dive" at 6 p.m. Thursday. "(I) worked on the song in between other tasks because I wanted to give a song as a gift to my fans," he said. "Thank you for waiting and I'll continue to pay back (your support) with music."

View Option

SHARE LIKE

TOKYO, July 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea beat fifth-ranked Japan in five sets in Tokyo Olympic women's volleyball on Saturday and secured a berth in the quarterfinals. The 14th-ranked South Korea pulled off a 3-2 (25-29, 19-25, 25-22, 15-25, 16-14) victory over Japan at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Consequently, South Korea now have three wins and a loss after four matches in six-country Pool A, securing third place regardless of the result of their next match against Serbia on Monday. The top four teams out of six after round-robin play progress to the quarterfinals. World No. 1 Brazil is leading the Pool A with four wins, followed by Serbia and South Korea with three each. The Dominican Republic and Japan, both of which have one win, will vie for the last ticket for the quarters. South Korean captain Kim Yeon-koung displayed her ability both on offense and defense, scoring a match-high 30 points, including three blocks. Attacker Park Jeong-ah and middle blocker Yang Hyo-

View Option

SHARE LIKE

By Yoo Jee-ho TOKYO, July 29 (Yonhap) -- When it comes to facing Japan in sports, the joke among South Korean athletes is that they absolutely must not lose in anything, not even in a game or rock, paper, scissors. And with South Korea scheduled to face Japan in the Tokyo Olympic women's volleyball tournament on Saturday, with no less than a quarterfinals berth at stake, no one has to remind South Korean players of the match's magnitude. "It's a match we absolutely have to win," setter Yeum Hye-seon said Thursday, after South Korea beat the Dominican Republic in five sets. "Any match against Japan is important, and we're meeting them with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. It will be an even more important match than today. We have to stick together as a team even more." South Korea is in Pool A with Brazil, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Japan and Serbia. The top four nations after round robin will progress to the quarterfinals. After Japan, South Korea will face

View Option

SHARE LIKE

By Yoo Jee-ho TOKYO, July 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's lone medal on Saturday at the Tokyo Olympics came from the women's sabre team fencing competition. But the fencers' dramatic rally over Italy was largely overshadowed by an embarrassing 6-3 loss by the men's football team to Mexico in the quarterfinals. The baseball team, meanwhile, lost to the United States 4-2 to slip to second place in its group. The women's volleyball team salvaged a heartening victory late at night, beating Japan in five sets to book a ticket to the quarterfinals. The women's sabre team of Kim Ji-yeon, Seo Ji-yeon and Yoon Ji-su rallied from a 25-15 deficit to beat Italy 45-42 for the bronze, the first medal won by South Korea in the event. South Korea competed in four fencing team events at these Olympic Games and came away with a medal in all of them: a gold by the men's sabre team, a silver by the women's epee team, and two bronze medals by the women's sabre and the men's epee team.

View Option

SHARE LIKE

By Yoo Jee-ho TOKYO, July 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea defeated the Dominican Republic for its second consecutive victory in the Tokyo Olympic women's volleyball tournament Thursday, brightening hopes of advancing to the knockout phase. The 14th-ranked South Korea beat No. 7 Dominican Republic 3-2 (25-20, 17-25, 25-18, 15-25, 15-12) at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. South Korea has two wins and a loss after three matches in Pool A. The top four teams out of six after round-robin play will progress to the quarterfinals. South Korea temporarily moved to third after Thursday's win. South Korea opened the Olympics with a straight-set loss to Brazil on Sunday but beat Kenya in three sets two days later. In the deciding fifth set, the teams traded points until South Korea went up 7-5, the first two-point lead by either team in the set. The Dominicans pulled even again at 9-9, and Kim Yeon-koung came through with a huge block on Jineiry Martinez. A serve point by Kim put South

View Option

SHARE LIKE

(ATTN: ADDS details, photos) By Yoo Jee-ho CHIBA, Japan, July 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea captured its second straight gold medal in the men's team sabre fencing on Wednesday, joining a short list of fencing powerhouses with multiple Olympic titles in the discipline. The team of Kim Jung-hwan, Gu Bon-gil, Oh Sang-uk and Kim Jun-ho took down Italy 45-26 in the gold medal match at Makuhari Messe Hall B in Chiba, east of Tokyo, on Wednesday. This is the fourth gold medal for South Korea at the Tokyo Olympics, and the first to come from a sport other than archery. South Korea won the men's team sabre title in London in 2012, but the event was not included in the program for the 2016 Olympics. From 2004 to 2016, with 12 fencing events on hand but only 10 gold medal allocated to the sport, two team events had to be rotated out each time. The Tokyo Games are the first to award gold medals to all six individual and six team events. Other than South Korea, only France, Ita

View Option

SHARE LIKE

TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korean artistic gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong can proudly call herself an Olympic medalist, but the 19-year-old vaulter isn't even the first one in her family to claim that title. It was a quarter century ago that her father, Yeo Hong-chul, captured silver medal in the men's vault at the Atlanta Olympics. Thanks to Seo-jeong's bronze medal in the women's vault at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, the Yeos are now the first father-daughter duo from South Korea to have won Olympic medals. The junior Yeo scored an average of 14.733 points, after 15.333 points in her first vault and 14.133 points in her latter attempt. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won the gold with 15.083 points and no one else averaged over 15 points. Yeo's chances of a gold medal looked promising for a moment, as her 15.333 points were the highest first-attempt points with three gymnasts remaining. Yeo, the 2018 Asian Games gold medalist, is such an accomplished vaulter that she al

View Option

SHARE LIKE

By Yoo Jee-ho TOKYO, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- In what could be the final Olympic match for their greatest volleyball player, South Korea will play Turkey in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympic women's volleyball tournament Wednesday. Captain Kim Yeon-koung will take the 14th-ranked South Korea up against world No. 4 Turkey at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. South Korea qualified for the quarterfinals by finishing in third place in Pool A. Turkey ended in third place in Pool B. The top seeds from each of the two groups will play No. 4 seeds from opposite groups in the quarters. No. 2 and No. 3 seeds were entered into a draw, and South Korea will face a team that it has only beaten twice in nine meetings. Most recently, Turkey defeated South Korea in four sets in the Volleyball Nations League tournament in June. Once again, South Korea will rely heavily on Kim, both its most dangerous attacker and its spiritual leader. At 33, Kim is competing in her third and

View Option

SHARE LIKE

SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Yonhap) -- Virus or not, a growing number of people have been caught attending parties in violation of COVID-19 rules, with some business owners opting to open and pay a fine than not open at all. South Korea has experienced a surge in COVID-19 infections in recent weeks, with more than 1,000 new cases daily since July 7. To contain the outbreak, which has been blamed on increased travel during the summer vacation season and the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, authorities have placed the capital area under the toughest Level 4 social distancing measures and most of the rest of the country under the next highest Level 3. Still, in the eastern coastal city of Gangneung, 237 kilometers east of Seoul, police walked in on a hotel pool party attended by dozens of people Saturday. The city government of Gangneung said the party broke multiple COVID-19 rules, including a mandate on wearing masks, keeping a distance between people and other restri

View Option

SHARE LIKE

TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Yonhap) -- Gymnast Yeo Seo-jeong captured the bronze medal in the women's vault at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, becoming the first South Korean female gymnast to reach an Olympic podium. Yeo is now the second member of her gymnastics family to win an Olympic medal. Her father, Yeo Hong-chul, won silver in the men's vault in 1996. The junior Yeo scored 14.733 points on average after two vaults. She posted 15.333 points with her first vault and 14.133 with her second attempt at Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo. jeeho@yna.co.kr

View Option

SHARE LIKE