K-pop girl group 2NE1 embark on Asian tour

SEOUL - South Korean girl group 2NE1 will embark on a nine-city Asian tour this weekend following the release of their new album "Crush", their agent said on Friday.

Starting in Hong Kong on Saturday, the group will travel through nine other cities until July 13 - Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Kanagawa and Hyogo.

Their agent said tour concerts would be co-directed by US choreographers Stacy Walker and Travis Payne.

The quartet have unveiled a pink-and-purple teaser poster for their new album and tour, showing silhouettes of the four girls standing tall on the planet and walking off into space.

"Crush" ranked second on the US Billboard K-pop chart Friday, and was 61st on the US Billboard top 200 in early March, a week after its release.

2NE1, one of South Korea's most successful girl groups, are popular across much of Asia and beyond.

K-pop has garnered an increasing number of international fans particularly following the global success of Psy's "Gangnam Style", the most popular video of all time on YouTube with 1.7 billion views.