TVXQ Scalped

Korean boy band TVXQ reduced to two members after three others left the group in a contractual dispute some years ago, gave its first concert in South Korea in four years on Nov. 17, but the show was marred by rampant ticket scalping.

Reportedly, tickets to the show and to another one on Nov. 18 were scooped up in a matter of minutes after going on sale at 80,000 won ($74) a pop.

Not long after, however, a lot of the tickets were showing up on mobile chat sites and applications for 10 times the amount. The group’s management, SM Entertainment, discovered the scalping and tried to stop it but was unable to.

All SM could do was send warnings. Following the Seoul opening, the TVXQ tour continued on to China, Thailand, and other countries in Asia.

However, TVXQ will not make a return appearance to Japan’s big New Year’s Eve music bash, Kohaku Uta Gassen, this year.

As expected, no K-pop artists were on the roster for the show that was announced by broadcaster NHK Nov. 26, owing to the current territorial dispute between Korea and Japan.

Photo: facebook.com/tvxq

Last year TVXQ, along with two other K-pop groups, Girls’ Generation and Kara were invited to the show. In a statement, NHK said that the K-pop artists were not invited “in consideration of public opinion and (the artists’) activities this year.”

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