KARA officially resumes activities as five-member group

KARA on the set of "URAKARA" in Japan [Sankei Sports]

Girl group KARA, whose members Han Seungyeon, Kang Jiyoung and Nicole are embroiled in a dispute with their agency DSP Media, went back to pursuing their activities as a five-member entity over the Lunar New Year holidays.

According to Japanese media outlets including Sankei Sports over the weekend, KARA resumed filming for their TV series "URAKARA" at a studio in Tokyo on Friday, shooting the fourth episode of the show with Japanese actress Mari Hamada which is set to go on air this Friday.

"URAKARA," a 12-part series on TV Tokyo's Drama 24 channel where the girls appear as spies with the special mission of winning the hearts of the men of their dreams, is a weekly series which first aired on January 14.

The broadcaster had been forced to show a special episode with highlight scenes from the series on February 4 however, after Han, Kang and Nicole announced they will split from DSP on January 19 for various reasons amounting to them having lost their trust in the agency.

The three have yet to reach a resolution with DSP but after a couple of discussions, the two parties agreed to cooperate on fulfilling the contracts and schedules which have already been set and that KARA would continue to stay a five-member group.

Accordingly, the girls left for Japan last Thursday, making it the first time in 25 days that they officially returned to acting as a five-member group.

The girls reaffirmed their latest decision through their official Japanese fan website (http://www.karaweb.jp) the same day, writing, "Thank you for always rooting for KARA and we're sorry to have caused extreme worry to you. The five of us will continue to work hard."

Kara made a debut with their first album "Blooming" in 2007 and is well known for their hit songs "Mister," "Wanna" and "Lupin."

The group debuted in Japan in August of last year after signing with Universal Music Sigma, a branch of Universal Music Group, with their first Japanese single "Mister."

They were named best new artist of the year at the 25th annual Japan Gold Disc Award, have placed at No. 1 on the Oricon chart's listing for the most successful new artist of 2010, and Oricon also named them the most promising artist of 2011.

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Jessica Kim jesskim@