Actor Bae Yong-joon health "much improved"

Actor Bae Yong-joon [KEYEAST]

Hallyu star Bae Yong-joon, hospitalized due to a ruptured disc in his neck, is now significantly healthier than last week when he was first admitted to a ward, according to his agency on Friday.

"His health has improved a lot... He's in pain so he has trouble moving about freely but he is not in a serious condition," an official at KEYEAST explained to Asia Economic Daily over the phone.

Just yesterday, it was belatedly discovered that Bae had been in a hospital in Seoul since January 4 due to a neck disc herniation that he had first developed after falling from a horse while filming 2007 historical epic "Four Gods."

The condition recently worsened acutely from the cold weather and overworking himself, and Bae had to be rushed to the hospital by an ambulance.

Bae is creative producer of "Dream High" which is a co-production between Korea's top entertainment firms KEYEAST, of which Bae is the largest shareholder, and JYP Entertainment, founded and owned by singer-producer Park Jin-young.

For the past two weeks, the 38-year-old star had also appeared in the show which tells about the dreams of aspiring stars who attend a performing arts school, making it his first small screen appearance in three years.

Bae's illness is not expected to affect the series since he is only making special appearances and had finished shooting all of his scenes except for one that was set for episode four which went on air on Tuesday.

He is also supposed to make an appearance in the finale episode but the decision will come at a later time since the script for it has yet to be finished and doctors may operate on Bae depending on the progress he makes.

Bae rose to mega-stardom in Korea and throughout Asia with the 2002 hit KBS TV series "Winter Sonata" co-starring actress Choi Ji-woo.

He has been actively promoting Korean culture in Asia as well through various efforts including running a Korean restaurant in Japan and publishing a photo essay titled "Discovering the Beauty of Korea" last year that has been sold in multiple languages as well as being made into a television documentary.

He has also made numerous donations to various organizations in Asia including 300 million won to the tsunami victims in 2005 as well as handing funds raised from an environment-themed photo spread to a UNEP committee.

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Reporter : Ko Kyoung-seok kave@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@