BTS cancel concerts as S. Korea virus cases rise faster than China

Daegu: K-pop megastars BTS cancelled Friday four Seoul concerts due in April as South Korea’s novel coronavirus cases jumped by nearly 600 a larger rise than the daily increase reported in China, where the disease first emerged.

The seven-piece boyband currently one of the biggest acts in the world had scheduled four gigs at the capital’s Olympic Stadium to promote their new album “Map of the Soul: 7”.

More than 200,000 fans were expected to attend, their agency Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement, with “a number of global production companies and a large group of expert international crew” also involved.

It was “impossible at this time to predict the scale of the outbreak”, it said, creating so much uncertainty it was “unavoidable” the shows were cancelled “without further delay”.

“We must take into consideration the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of guests as well as our artists,” it added.

The BTS concerts are the latest events to be cancelled or postponed as the outbreak has spread in the world’s 12th-largest economy, including the K-league football season and the World Team Table Tennis Championships.

The new school term has been delayed by one week and the US and South Korean militaries have postponed forthcoming joint exercises.

Hyundai Motor also suspended operations at one of its Ulsan plants after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.

The auto manufacturer had temporarily stopped all domestic production earlier this month because of a lack of parts due to the outbreak in China.