K-pop girl group Laboum to join campaign for soldiers

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- The girl group Laboum has been named the "cheering squad for soldiers" and will play a leading role in the nation's campaign to boost the morale of military personnel, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

It said the six-member group will participate in the country's campaign "Thank you! Soldiers" by performing at military bases.

Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesman for the defense ministry, conferred a plaque of appointment to the girl group at a briefing at the ministry on Wednesday.

Laboum will spend most of this month making a series of visits to frontline troops near the border with North Korea, where they will hold performances, fan meetings and photo ops with soldiers.

The idols will also convey messages of cheer from the public when they perform. The messages will be selected through an open contest to be conducted on the defense ministry's social network services (SNS) such as Facebook and Kakao Story.

Debuted in 2014 with its first album "Petit Macaron," Laboum gained popularity with its single albums "Sugar Sugar" and "Aalow Aalow." The members wear school uniforms and sing sprightly tunes about puppy love, which were both featured on the group's recent single album "Fresh Adventure" that was released last month.

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