Worldwide fans gather to celebrate Ryu's b-day

Top Hallyu star Ryu Si-won's fans from across the world flocked to Korea over the weekend to celebrate the actor's 37th birthday.

During his jointly-held birthday party and fan meeting held Sunday, the actor and singer sang songs from his recent TV series "Style" with friend and rapper Kim Jin-pyo, singer hanul and a fan, along with introducing songs from his new album set for release in early November in Japan.

"My activities can be defined as having three parts -- the first, making a comeback to the Korean drama scene for the first time in five years with TV series 'Style', secondly, introducing hanul to you as her producer and third, creating my pro racing 'Team 106'," Ryu told his fans during the two-hour long event at Gyeongju City of the North Gyeongsang Province.

Ahead of the event, Ryu was awarded a plaque of merit and thanks by Governor of North Gyeongsang Province Kim Kwan-yong and Gyeongju Mayor Baek Sang-seung.

Some 2,000 fans -- 90 percent from Japan and 10 percent from China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States -- had resided in Korea for three days to attend the event.

"I held birthday parties in Seoul for the past three years but some fans keep returning so I thought it would be nice to hold it somewhere fans could experience Korean culture this time," the actor explained of his reason choosing the location.

He also said he would go to Japan in a couple of weeks to prepare for eight concerts in four cities -- Saitama, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya -- from November 14 to December 16 with a total of 80,000 people expected to attend.

"I'm also releasing my tenth single album in Japan in early October along with my sixth regular album at the end of that month so I'll be back in Korea only by late-December," said Ryu.

The actor has had an active singing and acting career in Japan since gaining popularity in TV series "Beautiful Days" in 2001.

Reporter : Ko Jea-wan star@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr