Korean singer and contemporary dancer Nam Hyun-joon, better known by his stage name Poppin' Hyun Joon, has secured a ticket to a global dancing competition in the United States, his agency said on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old dancer, famous for his popping techniques, and his teammates won second place in the preliminary competition in Korea on Saturday, according to his management company Happy Face Entertainment.

In Korea, Nam is considered to be one of the first-generation K-pop street dancers, along with Lee Woo-sung, his teammate for the competition and the leader of street dancing team Expression.

Nam, a former member of the K-pop idol group Young Turks Club, is in good shape for the upcoming "World of Dance" competition on July 21. Only the top three teams of the preliminary competition qualified for the California-based international urban dance competition.

"World of Dance" is a prestigious dance competition launched by the global media company of the same name in 2008. The international event celebrates the culture of urban dance, art, and music, with more than 300 channels and 20,000 videos on the video sharing network YouTube.

This year Korea joined a group of host countries that staged a preliminary dance competition for World of Dance. The annual dancing event is expected to attract over 100,000 dancers from 27 countries around the world. (Yonhap)