Actor Kim Joo-hyuk, 45, died in a car crash Monday that occurred around 4:30 p.m. in Samseong-dong, Seoul, police said. Kim’s Mercedes-Benz SUV was driving along Yeongdong Daero when it hit a car and then fell down a staircase leading to an apartment building entrance. On Friday, Kim won an award for best supporting actor at the Seoul Awards for “Confidential Assignment.” In December 2016, Kim...

It may be the wedding of the year, but little is known about Tuesday’s much-anticipated wedding of Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, as the pair remain tight-lipped on the details. The couple’s wedding is set to take place at 4 p.m. at The Shilla Seoul’s Yeong Bin Gwan, a Korean-style banquet annex that can accommodate about 300 guests. Only family and close friends will be in attendance, with the...

Ven. Seoljeong was elected the new leader of the Jogye Order, South Korea's largest Buddhist group, on Thursday. The Jogye Order announced that Ven. Seoljeong won 234 votes from 319 electoral college members representing more than 14,000 Buddhist monks, overwhelming his sole rival, Ven. Subul, who received 82 votes. Ven. Seoljeong will begin his four-year term as the 35th chief of the order on ...

Playboy founder Hugh M. Hefner, the pipe-smoking hedonist who revved up the sexual revolution in the 1950s and built a multimedia empire of clubs, mansions, movies and television, symbolized by bow-tied women in bunny costumes, has died at age 91. Hefner died of natural causes at his home surrounded by family on Wednesday night, Playboy said in a statement. As much as anyone, Hefner helped slip...

World Wide Fund for Nature, the world’s leading conservationist organization, has appointed Jungwook Hong, chairman of Herald Corp. and its premium food brand Organica, as its newest board member. Jean-Paul Paddack, co-chairman of WWF-Korea, visited the company’s headquarters in Seoul on Friday to hand-deliver the letter of appointment to Hong. According to WWF, the Swiss-based nonprofit organi...

Famed novelist Ma Kwang-soo was found dead at his residence in Seoul on Tuesday. His body was discovered by his family around 1:50 p.m. at his house in Yongsan-gu. A will was found next to him leaving his belongings to his family. The police are treating the case as a suspected suicide. Ma, 66 was a former professor of Korean literature at Yonsei University. He gained public recognition with h...

When Kong Seong-Jae, known as Korean Billy, walks the streets of Seoul, not many would blink an eye. Little do they know that he is an online sensation on the other side of the globe, in Britain, and that he has accumulated over 17 million views on YouTube and Facebook combined. Why are so many people tuning into his videos? This 26-year-old Busan-born man can do British accents better than Brit...

Conductor Chung Myung-whun shakes hands with Italian Ambassador to Korea Marco della Seta after receiving the Order of the Star of Italy at a ceremony held at the ambassador's residence in Seoul on Thursday. The order is conferred by the president of Italy in recognition of a person's contributions to promoting friendly ties between Italy and other countries. (Yonhap)

With the internet abuzz over the newly revealed couple of Song Hye-kyo and Song Joong-ki, fans are focusing on other star couples who met on drama sets and ended up tying the knot. The most recent case was the wedding of actors Lee Sang-woo and Kim So-yeon. The couple met while starring in the TV drama “Happy Home” last year and admitted that they are in a romantic relationship a month after it ...

BARCELONA, Spain - Pilar Abel, the woman claiming to be Salvador Dali’s daughter, said Tuesday she wanted to recover her identity more than anything else, a day after the artist’s exhumation was ordered. For a decade, the 62-year-old who long worked as a psychic in the northeastern region of Catalonia where Dali was born, has tried to prove she is the painter’s child. Her paternity claim, howev...

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology showcased its academic excellence in front of foreign diplomats Friday in a bid to strengthen global partnerships. “KAIST is gearing up for another round of innovative initiatives in education, convergence research, technology commercialization, future strategies and globalization,” said KAIST President Shin Sung-chul. At the first Embassy ...

Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday dismissed charges against Chung Myun-whun, former music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. The move came after a 10-month-long investigation into allegations of dereliction of duty and embezzlement made against Chung. The case arose from complaints filed by several civic organizations in February 2015. Police sent the case to Seoul...

KAIST professor emeritus Kim Yang-han offers course that looks at the intersection of Western art and mechanical engineering

Kim Seong-kon, president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea and Seoul National University professor emeritus, was honored by the State University of New York last month for his lifelong contributions to strengthening academic and cultural ties between the US and Korea. Kim was conferred with a SUNY Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters during the commencement ceremony on May 19 at t...

Park Yong-maan, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry, was re-elected an executive board member of the International Chamber of Commerce, officials said Tuesday. He was re-elected at an ICC general assembly held in Nairobi. His term ends in June 2020. The ICC is the world’s largest business organization, with more than 6 million members from 130 countries. It was the first private...