Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Corporate sponsorship of arts win-win: Mecenat chief Park
Companies promoting their products and services through art sponsorships and cultural events are often frowned upon in Korea. But Park Sam-koo, chief of Kumho Asiana Group, has questioned why.Park, who has recently taken up the chairmanship of the Korea Mecenat Association, said it can be a “win-win situation for both enterprises and the artists,” during his first press conference in Seoul on Thursday as chief of the association, a local advocacy group for corporate sponsorship of the arts. Comp
April 9, 2015
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Biographies of Korean patriots to be published
The Independence Hall of Korea announced Wednesday the launch of a five-year project that traces the legacies of thousands of Korean independence activists and compiles them into an encyclopedia. “The Who’s Who in the Korean Independence Movement” will feature 16,000 patriots who campaigned against Japanese colonial rule, including well-known heroes Ahn Jung-geun and Yun Bong-gil. The encyclopedia is expected to be published in 2019, the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of
April 8, 2015
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Keeping records of Sewol sinking
Posters of a K-pop boy band and a big stuffed bear imply the owner of the room must be a teenage girl. Indeed, sitting at the center of the room is a large portrait of a girl with the typical look of a Korean high school student with short, straight hair. But she hasn’t been home since April 16, 2014. Seventeen-year-old Danwon High School sophomore Han Se-young was one of the 304 who perished when the Sewol ferry sank off the southern coast of Korea. She was on a school trip to Jejudo Island, wi
April 8, 2015
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Poet Ahn Do-hyun's work to be published in English
An English translation of a fable by poet Ahn Do-hyun will be published in Britain this week, his agency said Wednesday. The book, titled "The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher," will be released on Thursday (in British time) by Pan Macmillan, one of the largest British book publishers, according to KL Management, which had planned the book's overseas release. This is the first of Ahn's books to be translated into English. It was translated by Deborah Smith, who specializes in English-language
April 8, 2015
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Exploring the bounds of Korean art at Seoul Station
A peculiar sculpture greets visitors at the old Seoul Station building. Dangling from the ceiling in the main lobby of the building is a tangled clump of twisted wooden ropes that are studded with rocks. All of the materials are from nature, but the wooden stalks are painted red, yellow, blue and white ― colors that conjure images of the cluttered manmade chaos of electrical wires. Artist Cha Ki-youl, who created the piece, “The Journey of Circulation/A Period Between Ark and Kangmok,” said it w
April 5, 2015
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Korea, France to launch cultural exchange programs
Korean culture will be on display throughout France starting this September as part of a cultural exchange program to mark the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and France next year. The first lineup of 85 Korean cultural programs were announced Tuesday by the Korean committee of the cultural exchange program. Programs range from concerts, performances and exhibitions of major modern and contemporary Korean artists to a retrospective of revered filmmaker Im Kwon-taek.
March 31, 2015
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From branding guru to traditional arts patron
At the hill of Mount Namsan, where a sprawling metropolis of 10.5 million starts to give way to a forest of leafy trees, a small museum opened in December. Nestled inside are wooden chests, tables, jewelry boxes and other intricate craftworks lacquered and decorated with exquisite mother-of-pearl inlays. Everything inside is the private collection of Sohn Hye-won. “I never thought that I would really do this -- open a museum,” said Sohn, 60, in an interview at the Korea Mother-Of-Pearl Art Museu
March 27, 2015
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S. Korea's Bae Doona wins best actress at Asian Film Awards
South Korean actress Bae Doona has won the best actress award for her performance in the Korean film "A Girl at My Door" at the ninth Asian Film Awards in Macau, China, her agency said Friday. (Yonhap)Bae won the honor during the awards ceremony held on Wednesday, beating Gong Li of the Chinese film "Coming Home" and Tang Wei of another Chinese film, "The Golden Era," Saetbyuldang Entertainment said.Directed by July Jung, "A Girl at My Door" tells the story of a female police officer (played by
March 27, 2015
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Seoul city to create cinema park on central street
The city government of Seoul said Wednesday it will create a cinema-themed park on the centrally located Chungmuro film street in effort to help support the development of the local film industry.The cinema park will be completed by 2018 on the old film street that symbolizes South Korea's history of modern movie making as the location of the country's first movie theater, according to the city.Now the street stands languid as most of the film studios have moved to more vibrant southern areas. T
March 25, 2015
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Two Korean films among 2014's top 10 foreign movies in North America
Two Korean films -- "Roaring Currents" and "Ode to My Father" -- ranked among the top 10 best-selling foreign films that opened in North American theaters last year, the movies' investor-distributor said Wednesday."'Roaring Currents' and 'Ode to My Father' took sixth and ninth place, respectively, garnering $2.59 million and $2.28 million in cumulative sales," CJ E&M said, citing recent data from Rentrak Corp. that provides a box office tracking service in North America.This marks the first time
March 25, 2015
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Seoul Fashion Week amps up color in vivid womenswear
Brown and burgundy are no longer the go-to colors for the cooler seasons in Korea, it seems. Brimming with color, experimental fabrics and unexpected twists, the first day of Seoul Fashion Week 2015 Fall/Winter Womenswear kicked off on March 23 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.“So many designers elsewhere use similar colors, especially for the fall-winter season, but the color mix of Korean fashion is unique.” said Ritta aka Miss X, a buyer from the Chinese city of Chongqing. Kaal E. Suktae: Carto
March 24, 2015
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[Weekender] Home awakening
Preparing for a foray here last year, Ikea, a global home furnishing giant, did some research on Korean consumers, collecting as many images of their homes as possible. What it ended up with were hordes of images of almost identical-looking apartment units: white wallpaper, cookie-cutter room and furniture layouts and, above all, the decided lack of decorative items. Lee Yu-rim, who runs home interior shops in Seoul, calls this the “dark age” of Korean homes. For decades, furniture was something
March 20, 2015
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[Weekender] The ‘candle effect’: Why Koreans splurge on small home decor items
The demand for home decor items is growing among Koreans today, in a sensation that has been dubbed the “candle effect.” A spinoff of the “lipstick effect,” which refers to a hike in consumption of cosmetic goods during recession, the newly coined term indicates the increasing popularity of small home decor items such as scented candles, cushions and figurines that are more affordable than furniture but effectively liven up the home ambience.Virtually nonexistent just five years ago, the Korean
March 20, 2015
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Calendar
Theater”Cats“: The international production of the Broadway classic “Cats” is having its Seoul run from April 10 to May 10. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2011, is the second longest-running show in Broadway history. It tells the story of the Jellicles, a tribe of cats who assemble for their annual junkyard gathering when one is chosen to be reborn for a new life. One-by-one the kittens take center stage to make their case for rebirth, singing and danci
March 20, 2015
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Korea to adopt common brand for state agencies
Korea plans to adopt common branding for all government departments and agencies, government officials said. According to a blueprint unveiled Tuesday, a new government identity will be developed by October and will be phased in from next March until 2017, replacing the existing brands and symbols of some 750 public institutions. “From development to application, the all-of-government brand is estimated to cost around 23.6 billion won ($20 million),” Won Yong-gi, director at the Ministry of Cult
March 17, 2015
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Quick food delivery favored part of Korean culture
Koreans and foreigners alike consider Korea’s staple culture to be its quick and convenient food delivery service.Now a survey has backed this up. According to an online survey conducted by the Corea Image Communication Institute, a majority of both Korean and foreign respondents, 54.60 percent and 50.87 percent, respectively, agreed that the fast food delivery service was their favorite part of Korean culture.In second place came the late operating hours, with 20.90 percent of Koreans and 22.61
March 17, 2015
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Early education starts from the womb?
“What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave,” says a popular old adage. While it means that habits acquired in youth tend to be hard to break, Korean people have long embraced a more literal interpretation of the saying.Since over 600 years ago, expectant mothers in Korea have been practicing taegyo, a series of prenatal routines aimed at nurturing a healthy, virtuous and skilled child. They try to see and hear only the most pleasant things starting from three months of pregnancy. Mot
March 16, 2015
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[Weekender] Struggles of a sleepless society
Instead of sipping lattes, visitors to one cafe in Gye-dong, central Seoul, get into hammocks and doze off, indulging in a short break from a hectic day in Korea’s busiest city.Nazzzam has attracted a lot of attention since opening last year as the nation’s first “nap cafe.” But its owner, Jeong Ji-eun, claims the place offers more than just shut-eye. “It’s not a sleeping area per se, but a place where people can take a break from their busy lives,” she said. Originally a freelance English teach
March 13, 2015
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[Weekender] Good dreams, bad dreams and baby omens
Lee Jae-in woke up one day from an uneasy dream. The 31-year-old, who rarely dreams, could vividly recall what was disturbing her. “Someone was pulling my teeth out,” she said. Feeling leery, she grabbed her smartphone to search online for clues about what the dream meant. Immediately, a portal site pulled up a long list of dream-interpreting websites and Q&A pages filled with answers. “Everyone said losing teeth was a bad omen,” said Lee. “I don’t trust dream interpretation 100 percent, but the
March 13, 2015
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[Weekender] Prophetic dreams?
What do Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler and Yi Seong-gye, the 14th century founder of the Joseon Kingdom, have in common? They all claimed to have seen their future in their dreams ― years and sometimes days before the actual events occurred.Abraham Lincoln told friends a few weeks before he was killed in April 1865 that he had seen his own body lying in state in the White House.“Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments,” Lincoln allegedly said about his dr
March 13, 2015