When Jim Clark, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who started Netscape, set out to build his high-tech yacht called the Hyperion that could be controlled via sensors connected to a computer network, the market viewed his grand plan as no more than a dream. But the idea that objects and solutions can be connected to and operated through wireless networks is becoming a reality, thanks in part to the...

Bindu N. Lohani, vice president of the Asian Development Bank. ( ADB) ASTANA, Kazakhstan ― Asia has served as the world’s main growth engine since the global financial crisis in 2008. However, many countries in the region still suffer from extreme poverty. ‘‘Poverty still remains a fundamental and critical challenge ... (that lies) ahead (for) the region,” a top official from the Asian Developm...

“Speed” is the key to explaining Hyundai Motor Group’s stunning growth over the past decade. The rapid decision-making under the charismatic leadership of chairman Chung Mong-koo has been crucial for its global expansion. But Don Southerton, author of the recent book “Hyundai Way: Hyundai Speed,” says a more cross-cultural approach is now needed for the Korean auto giant to keep going at its cur...

As Kuwait seeks to diversify its oil-heavy economy, Korea is ready to help expedite the transition by fostering partnerships in low-carbon technologies and the service and other knowledge-based industries, Seoul’s new envoy to the Gulf country said. Shin Boo-nam, former ambassador for climate change and green growth, is anchoring his hopes on Korea’s knowhow in education, healthcare and green te...

Korean food is gaining popularity abroad and is acclaimed for being healthy, but there is a definite need to nurture high-end Korean culture and related products if the country really wants to globalize its food, according to a CEO who has devoted his life to promoting premium ceramics and liquor and enhancing Korean food culture. “Embracing the upscale parts can bring diversity and dynamicity t...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping may be using the possibility of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a diplomatic card to pressure the isolated, impoverished neighbor to behave, a U.S. scholar said. In a recent interview with The Korea Herald, Bonnie Glaser, senior advisor for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also noted that despite Pyongyang’s aberrant behavior,...

BELEK, Turkey ― Jens Heithecker, executive director of the Internationale Funkausstellung, believes the IFA will continue to be the world’s exhibition platform for promoting consumer electronic goods rather than being distracted by other products. “The last International CES trade show was dominated by car manufacturers,” Heithecker told the press, calling it “crazy.” Four of the top 10 partici...

In 1961, at age 25, Faye Pinchbeck crossed the Pacific Ocean to be with her beloved, a Korean man 15 years her senior. The American woman from Connecticut met Stephen Moon (Moon Tong-hwan), well-known pastor and social activist, while studying to be a social worker at Hartford Seminary in the U.S., where Moon was working on his doctorial thesis in Christian Education as an international student. ...

This is the fifth installment in a series of interviews with chiefs of United Nations offices in Korea. ― Ed. With Korea’s advanced information technology, its know-how in e-government services could provide a key tool for developing countries to help achieve good governance and effective public administration, the head of the U.N. Project Office on Governance said. “E-government is one of the ...

In their teen years, the three sisters Maria, Lucia and Angella Ahn, a.k.a. the Ahn Trio, graced the cover of Time Magazine as “Asian-American whiz kids.” In their 20s and 30s, this classical trio built a reputation in the classical music world and beyond, with genre-crossing programs, collaborations with a variety of artists ― not just musicians but dancers, visual artists and many others ― and ...

The future of Korea’s hotel industry lies in “going upscale” to establish global and premium-brand hotels satisfying the needs of the spiraling number of business travelers to the country, an expert on the hospitality industry said. Despite the plethora of budget hotels targeting holidaymakers, the key will be to capture the business travelers who are less sensitive to economic ups and downs, sa...

As U.S. President Barack Obama had once pointed out, South Korean’s zeal for education is second to none. But English language education author Patrick Jackson said effort alone is not enough when vying to become a polyglot. For young language learners, the key is to keep the work interesting, enjoyable and connected to the real world. “The amount of content (Korean) students go through in a ye...

The Global Green Growth Institute is committed to crafting low-carbon development strategies for emerging countries by harnessing innovation and fostering public-private cooperation in line with Seoul’s drive for a creative economy, its new chief said. Yvo de Boer, former executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, also expressed his resolve to remake the Seoul-based ...

Korean-American rapper Snacky Chan, 33, has always been an independent artist. From his start in the Boston underground hip-hop scene in the late ’90s to his move to Korea in 2008 and up to today, he said he’s never been out to get signed. Instead, he relies solely on himself. “When I first started ― first debuted ― the whole system kind of changed. People were doing stuff independent and build...

Kang Yosep seems to be a hot commodity in Europe’s opera scene. Last December, he sang the leading role in Puccini’s tragic opera “La Boheme” for 17 days in three different productions staged by top opera houses in Berlin, Mannheim and Vienna. His schedule for this year and the next looks much the same. He is to perform in the German cities of Munich, Leipzig and Dresden, and in Warsaw and Vien...