On October 21, Stray Kids received the Prime Minister's Commendation at the 2023 Korea Popular Culture and Arts Awards held at the Haeoreum Grand Theater in Seoul.

The award is hosted to honor artists from different art fields, who have significantly contributed to promoting the country's culture and arts worldwide. As of now, Girls' Generation, 2NE1, JYJ, SHINee, EXO, and SEVENTEEN are the only K-pop groups to receive this special honor.

The members were unable to participate in the ceremony due to their concert in Seoul. Instead, members expressed their feelings through their agency. Members stated, "We are truly grateful for the meaningful award."

"We are grateful to the many fans at home and abroad who have loved Stray Kids' music," and added, "We hope you will enjoy our music and gain strength from it."

Stray Kids have found global success. Due to overwhelming demand, Stray Kids have announced a second encore performance at LA's BMO Stadium in April as part of their 2nd World Tour "MANIAC". This show marks a monumental career highlight for the group as their second headlining US stadium performance.

Based on Korea's Hanteo Chart data, the 3rd studio album '5-STAR' released last June sold a total of 4,617,499 copies in the first week of release. This is a new record for a K-pop album.

Stray Kids' '5-STAR' even debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, becoming the highest-selling K-pop album in the United States this year.

Stray Kids became the first K-pop artist to headline Lollapalooza Paris last July, and they won the Best K-Pop category at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards with the main track 'Special' from their 3rd studio album.

Recently, the group announced the "5-STAR Dome Tour 2023," which will take place across four domes in Japan and the KSPO Dome in Korea.

Meanwhile, Stray Kids' new mini album 'Rock-Star' will be released on November 10 at 2 PM (0:00 AM EST). 

<Translated by=Jiwon Kim(Dispatch)>