Director Lee Hyuk-sang debuts Korea’s first gay documentary Smart, eloquent and bubbly, director Lee Hyuk-sang loves being himself. “My whole worldview changed as I found out about my sexual orientation,” said Lee, who is gay. “I got to see so many things that I didn’t get to see before. And I am proud of it.” Lee’s debut film, “Miracle on Jongno Street,” is the first-ever gay-themed document...

Charles Montgomery thinks Korean literature could be on the brink of a popularity breakthrough. But when he looked on Wikipedia he was disappointed to find a dearth of information about it. Major authors were overlooked: Gong Ji-young’s page was a 60-word stub; Park Wan-suh had no page at all. That’s a disastrous situation in an age when if something isn’t on Wikipedia it doesn’t exist. “Suppo...

The number of native-speaking English teachers hired at public schools rose slightly this year, a telephone survey by the Korea Herald has found. Provincial and metropolitan education boards reported that the number of teachers rose 2.9 percent in March from a year before. The increase was mainly due to a 134 percent increase in Daegu to 567 teachers. The city government said that of the 325 st...

Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam urged fellow Asian members Tuesday to pull together and help his campaign for the FIFA presidency. Bin Hammam, who chairs the Asian Football Confederation, is seeking to oust the long-time FIFA President Sepp Blatter. FIFA, the world’s football governing body, confirmed Monday that the current president Blatter of Swiss and Qatari challenger Bin Hammam ar...

Korea’s veteran golfers seek strong finish at the Masters Two South Korean veteran golfers at the Masters Tournament here this week said that they’re eyeing a high finish at the season’s first major championship. After finishing nine holes of practice at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, Yang Yong-eun said he is seeking a “top-10” finish. “The wind was blowing hard today and I was just ch...

The new baseball season began with good momentum over the weekend with completely full stadiums in its opening games. The Korea Baseball Organization drew a record 5.92 million spectators last season, and this year, marking the 30th anniversary of the league’s launch, it has set a new target of 6 million fans. The start was good. In Jamsil, where the Doosan Bears squared off with their Seoul ri...

The number of South Korean couples who got divorced due to conflicts over money surged almost 78 percent in the past decade, a survey said Tuesday, indicating that financial problems are becoming a major factor in the rising divorce rate. According to the survey of 4,405 divorced people conducted between 1990-2009 by one of the country's leading matchmaking firms Sunwoo, 12.7 percent of marriage...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Three bodies have been found on a beach in Long Island, east of New York City, authorities said Monday, bringing to eight the number of corpses found in the same area since December. Local media hyped the idea of a serial killer, but police said they had no suspect at this time. Four prostitutes' bodies were found near Oak Beach, New York, in December and a fifth unidentified v...