In order to answer the fundamental open question of ``Where do nuclei and elements come from'', studies of nuclear properties with powerful rare isotope beam (RIB) facilities are critical. Moreover, with the recent astonishing observation of the first neutron star merger by astronomers, understanding nuclear spectroscopic properties of short-lived nuclei has become very important to demonstrate outcomes of the event such as gamma-ray, optical and X-ray emissions. However, because most of the key nuclei constraining the nucleosynthesis models including the rapid proton capture process (rp-process) and the rapid neutron capture process (r-process) are far from stability, our understanding of astronomical observables is still very limited due to large uncertainties in calculated properties of the nuclei and a lack of measurements with radioactive ion beams for the spectroscopic information. While there are a few RIB facilities in the world, which provide short-lived radioactive beams to perform studies of nuclear properties of exotic nuclei, new generation RIB accelerator facilities around the world including FRIB in the U.S., RIBF in Japan and RAON in Korea will be available soon. Recent experimental studies of key nuclei performed at the existing facilities will be presented as well as new active research activities at the Center for Exotic Nuclear Studies (CENS), Institute for Basic Science (IBS). Future plans on how to take advantage of the new facilities including RAON will also be addressed.