Lee Teuk says Super Junior will do its best with 10 members

Lee Teuk, leader of Korean idol group Super Junior, has said the group will do its best to promote its latest album although making a comeback with only 10 of its original 13 members.

The singer made the remark during an interview with Asia Economic Daily on Friday ahead of staging their comeback performance on KBS' weekly music show "Music Bank", referring to members Kang-in, Kibum and Hangeng taking a break from the group.

Kang-in is planning to enter the army to fulfill his mandatory two-year military service, Kibum is focusing on his acting career and Hangeng is currently embroiled in a legal battle with SM.

"Many people asked if we are starting to lose our light or if we would no longer be showing a variety of performances which was our strength," the singer said. "But we will try to put those worries to sleep through our activities...... The team is getting along better than ever."

He added that Kang-in decided to take a break from his career and go to the military both for himself and for the team. He stressed that the other members were not against Kang-in in continuing his career after he got caught drunk driving last October.

Lee appeared confident about the new album, saying that they had received about 200,000 advanced orders for the record, compared to 150,000 orders they had gotten for the group's previous chart-topping album "Sorry, Sorry."

Super Junior -- composed of members Leeteuk, Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum and Kyuhyun -- debuted in December 2005 with their first studio album titled "SuperJunior05 (TWINS)".

They became a K-pop phenomenon across Asia, thanks to the success of their subsequent albums "Don't Don" (2007) and "Sorry, Sorry" (2009), and held two sold-out concert tours in 2008 and 2009 titled "The 1st Asia Tour - Super Show" and "Super Show 2".

Their latest single "BONAMANA", the title track from the fourth record, has been sweeping various K-pop music charts since it was released on May 10.

Reporter : Park Kun-ouc kun1112@
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@