Posted by Jacques Peterson on 12/03/2012 at 1:19 AM News

The Popdust Files: junsu, jyj, K-pop, SM Entertainment, tvxq

Now that the ugly JYJ / SM Entertainment legal battle has finally come to an end, the K-pop trio have officially confirmed plans to return with a new album next year. Member Junsu announced the good news during a press conference in Germany for his current Tarantallaga world tour, revealing that we’ll probably see the disc drop around the middle of 2013.

“It’s true that JYJ will release a new album next year,” he told reporters. “It will be sometime in the middle of the year. We’ll be promoting individually until the beginning of the year, but we think we can stand together as JYJ around the middle of the year.”

With SM Ent. now legally out of JYJ’s gelled hair, there’s a glimmer of hope that the talented trio will finally be able to perform on Korea’s broadcast programs again.

“If this result allows us to appear on broadcast again, then it should have happened 3 years ago when we first got into the lawsuit,” Junsu stated.

Junsu doesn’t sound wildly optimistic, does he? JYJ’s label, C-JeS Entertainment, haven’t been all sunshine and lollipops, either, stating last week that the drama between JYJ and SM, “isn’t a legal issue, but a battle between David and Goliath.”

With Max and Yunho of TVXQ currently reigning supreme as the fiercest performers in pop music, it’s only fair that JYJ not only get the chance to give the duo a run for their money, but the opportunity to fairly promote their music just like any other K-pop star can. The fact that Junsu served up some of the most epic performances of 2012 with “Tarantallegra,” but was unable to bring them to the small screen, still stands as one of the biggest musical crimes of 2012. There’s only so many times you can watch grainy concert footage before craving the professional gloss of Music Bank or M! Countdown.