ark Jae-beom, former leader of popular Korean idol group 2PM, has been featured in a Canadian magazine while participating in a local b-boying contest.
Vancouver HYPE Magazine wrote on its online blog "justalilhype!" (http://justalilhype.com) about the former K-pop idol and ran photos of Park dancing with his b-boy crew named Art of Movement at the "Battle of T.N.G: Just Battle" contest held in Vancouver on Monday.
HYPE briefly interviewed the Korean-American singer -- who goes by the name Jay Park -- at the event, saying that he was "reluctant to shoot still shots with fans until the end of event" but he was "friendly nevertheless and talked to many of his female admirers" throughout the contest.
Park was introduced as "a superstar back in Korea" and said to have "kept a low-key presence and treated all other b-boys of the event with respect".
The article explained that although the Seattle native and his team did not win, their performance was "one of the most anticipated" numbers of the night and received "abundant cheering and screaming from his female fans."
The magazine ended the article by calling Park a "multi-talented young individual" and mentioning a video that he had released last week on popular video sharing site YouTube -- a cover of "Nothing On You" by U.S. hip-hop artist B.o.B.
Park, 22, had sparked national controversy last September after remarks -- including "I hate Korea" -- he had written on his MySpace account before his debut became public. He quit the boy band four days later and returned to his hometown of Seattle.
He was expected to make his much-awaited comeback to the group this year until agency JYP Entertainment (JYPE) announced last month that it will be terminating its contract with the singer due to "a huge personal wrongdoing" on his part.
JYPE did not reveal further details, saying it was linked to his personal life, but stated that it deemed Park "no longer fit to be the agency's artist", and that his bandmates all agreed it would be "difficult to work with Park Jae-beom as the group 2PM any longer".
After Park's departure from the group last fall, the remaining members made a successful comeback as a six-man band last December with their single "Hearbeat."
Source: Asiae
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