SEOUL: South Korean pop icon Rain announced his engagement to top actress Kim Tae-Hee in a handwritten letter to fans Tuesday – but said their wedding would be low-key given the country’s economic and political woes. “She has always been by my side through the hard times and the good times,” he said, referring to the actress two years his senior, who has a massive following in Asia. The celebrity couple first met while shooting a TV commercial in 2011 and began dating a year later. Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-Hoon, is one of the biggest names in the world of K-pop, which commands a huge following in South Korea, across much of Asia and beyond. The singer was confined to barracks for a week in January 2013 for sneaking out to meet Kim while performing his mandatory military service.

Source: New Strait Times January 17, 2017 08:56 UTC