BTS members promise to 'stay together in 2025 and beyond'
All seven members of boy band BTS will renew their exclusive contracts with their agency BigHit Music, a music label run by HYBE, promising to "stay together in 2025 and beyond."
"The board of BigHit Music all agreed to renew the exclusive contracts of BTS members RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook," the company said in a press release.
The renewals will be made at different times for individual members because two members — Jin and J-Hope — are currently fulfilling their military duties, while member Suga is set to start his service on Friday.
BigHit Music will donate 1 billion won ($752,000) to Unicef to celebrate the renewal. The contribution is part of the "Love Myself" campaign that the boy band began in collaboration with the Korean branch of Unicef in November 2017.
This is the second time for the members to renew their contracts with the agency.
The band debuted in June 2013 and first renewed their contracts in October 2018, two years earlier than when their standard seven-year contracts would have ended.
The company did not reveal how long the new contracts would last, but promised that "all of BTS will be together after 2025."
"With this renewal, we will be able to see BTS as a whole, which we aim to see in 2025," HYBE said in a press release. "We promise to support the artists in all ways possible so that BTS's reputation becomes even more elevated."
BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]