RIIZE's Seunghan To Return From Hiatus

RIIZE’s Seunghan will be resuming activities after a nearly yearlong hiatus.

On October 11, SM Entertainment announced that Seunghan—who abruptly halted all activities last year—would be making his return to the group next month.

Starting in November, Seunghan will be gradually participating in some of RIIZE’s scheduled activities.

SM Entertainment’s full statement is as follows:

To the BRIIZE [RIIZE’s fandom] who love RIIZE,

Hello, this is Wizard Production, who is in charge of producing for RIIZE.
We would like to cautiously make a statement regarding member Seunghan’s return and the direction of RIIZE’s future activities.

As the fans know, it has been around 10 months since Seunghan went on a hiatus from group activities due to issues with his pre-debut personal life.

Seunghan acknowledges that his past actions were wrong, and he has currently halted activities for nearly a year while deeply reflecting [on his actions] and feeling apologetic to the other members and his fans.
We also recognized that Seunghan’s past actions were not appropriate as an artist, which is why it took us a long time to debate the timing of his return to activities.

Because there was no announcement regarding Seunghan’s activities, the fans went beyond curiosity to become worried and concerned, and we empathize with those feelings. But as we continued to debate the matter from various angles, [our decision took some time], and we sincerely apologize for the fact that we are only now telling you our decision about the direction of RIIZE’s future activities.

We poured our heart and soul into planning out RIIZE even before their debut, and we have determined that RIIZE’s next chapter would be even more meaningful if the seven members were together. Therefore, after numerous discussions with the staff and members about the direction of the group’s future activities, it has been decided that Seunghan will be returning to the group.
After joining the group and preparing for a certain amount of time, we plan for Seunghan to gradually participate in some of the group’s scheduled activities for November and greet the fans once again.

Even during his hiatus, Seunghan has consistently worked to build his skills, and as he still has a lot to show you in the future, we hope that you will look warmly upon him.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for causing confusion and difficulty for the fans who have watched over and cheered for RIIZE’s growth.
However, as RIIZE is a group that aims to rise and realize their dreams together, the members think of the group as their top priority and are, even at this very moment, working hard to practice [for their future activities].
We ask that you trust our decision so that we can properly show the fans a RIIZE consisting of seven members.

We are certain that many people are curious about what RIIZE’s next chapter will be, how much farther they will rise, what sorts of dreams they are harboring, and how they will realize those dreams in the future.
Because we, the people who are the closest to RIIZE and who are also passionate fans of RIIZE ourselves, are also eagerly looking forward to RIIZE’s next chapter.

We will continue to work hard in the future to repay [the fans] with RIIZE’s great music and performances while sharing the members’ dreams.
We ask that you stay with the members and share all of their moments of rising and realizing that will continue to unfold in the future.