[Herald Interview] Song Sae-byeok’s career enjoys late dawn

Actor Song Sae-byeok is not the most well-known actor in Korea, but he has infused his characters with an intensity and unique likability that makes people remember him. Following a brief appearance in Bong Joon-ho’s “Mother” (2009), his supporting role as the perverted, corrupt official Byeon Hak-do in the period film “The Servant” (2010) drew laughter on account of his nonchalant, comic poise and earned him a best new actor award. Recently, he played the part of a violent stepfather in “A Girl

FilmDec. 2, 2014

[Herald Interview] Adoptee launches search service for birth parents, adoptees

Korean transnational adoptee Sarah Bowling was adopted to the U.S. in 1974 at age 3 from an orphanage in Busan.Despite two DNA tests with potential parents in the 1990s ― both came out negative ― Bowling has not found her birth family.However, her experience living in South Korea since 2009 as well as her own birth family search have inspired her to start a project with a very personal connection. She recently launched Korea Reconnect, an online database that helps birth parents and adoptees loo

Social AffairsDec. 1, 2014

[Herald Interview] Audrey Hepburn’s son talks about her charity work

“My mother thought she had a big nose and big feet, was too skinny with skimpy breasts. She would look in the mirror and say, ‘I don’t understand why people think I’m beautiful,’” Audrey Hepburn’s son said about his late mother, deemed the 20th century’s most beautiful woman by fans around the world. Luca Dotti, 44, the second son of Hepburn, who stewarded Hollywood’s golden age, came to Korea last week to promote a fund-raising exhibition, “Beauty beyond Beauty,” held at Seoul’s Dongdaemun Desi

Social AffairsNov. 30, 2014

[Herald Interview] A life devoted to public service

In 1948, high-flying metallurgy professor Choe Ke-soon decided to start a new chapter in his life by going to the U.S. Moving there without any relatives or friends, he started as a visiting scholar at Princeton and Columbia universities in New York, before being recruited by The Boeing Co. in 1967 and passing away in 2003 as a top engineer, self-taught calligrapher and watercolor painter, and a Korean-American leader in Seattle. Just like her father, Martha Choe has been leading a tireless yet

Foreign AffairsNov. 30, 2014

[Herald Interview] Lee Jung-jae returns as invincible fighter

Model-turned-actor Lee Jung-jae has worked in TV and film for many years. Lee instantly became a household name when he starred in the 1994 campus TV drama “Feelings.” In 1995, his impressive supporting role as a silent, devoted bodyguard in the sensational TV drama “Sandglass” turned him into a national heartthrob. Boosted by his success on the small screen, his 1999 film “City of the Rising Sun,” with costar Jung Woo-sung ― who has become one of Lee’s best friends ― earned him a best actor awa

FilmNov. 26, 2014

[Herald Interview] OECD calls for regional nuclear safety approach

Despite persistent territorial and historical tension, Northeast Asia needs to formulate a joint scheme to promote nuclear safety which will help preclude future disasters and boost practical cooperation, chief of the OECD’s atomic energy agency said Tuesday. William Magwood, director-general of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD, stressed the growing need to jointly address safety issues in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima debacle in Japan, such as by cultivating a safety culture.  William Mag

Foreign AffairsNov. 25, 2014

[Herald Interview] Actor committed to helping refugees

Albeit powerless and hapless far away from his homeland Bhutan, the young boy could not give up his dream of becoming an actor like Jung Woo-sung since watching his 2004 film “A Moment to Remember.”As the boy re-enacted a perilous cross-border journey on a makeshift stage alongside his peers at the Beldangi refugee camp in Nepal, the 41-year-old South Korean actor Jung was shaken by the young refugees’ purity and unity even while lacking basic needs. The encounter took place during Jung’s first

Foreign AffairsNov. 23, 2014

[Herald Interview] Finnish P.M. uncovers Finland-Korea connection

Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb visited Korea last week to invigorate bilateral ties in a broad range of areas, from winter sports to green technology. The Finnish delegation attended a summit, forum and exhibition from Nov. 19-22, facilitating trade and investment in arctic development, energy infrastructure, shipbuilding, security and education.A welcome reception for select diplomats, businessmen and journalists was held at the Finnish Embassy in Seoul, last Wednesday.The 46-year-old w

Foreign AffairsNov. 23, 2014

[Herald Interview] Korean rich should pay more tax: ADB

An economist from the Asia Development Bank urged Korea to consider levying more taxes on the rich to create a more balanced wealth distribution. “Korea, which was considered a success story in generating growth with equity in the 1970s and 1980s, has seen rising income inequality in recent years,” said Juzhong Zhuang, a deputy chief economist at the Asian Development Bank, in an interview with The Korea Herald. The latest OECD data showed Korea’s Gini coefficient ― a scale with zero being perfe

Nov. 23, 2014

[Herald Interview] Finnair to halve carbon emissions by 2050

Finnair, the flagship carrier of Finland, on Thursday said it will go carbon neutral by 2020 and halve its carbon emissions by 2050.In an aggressive attempt to make its operations greener, the company is set to use more planes that are fuel-efficient or run on bio-fuels, said Kati Ihamaki, vice president of the sustainable development unit at the Helsinki-based airliner, during a recent interview with The Korea Herald. “Because we are a flight company, every drop of fuel we save is directly link

IndustryNov. 23, 2014

[Herald Interview] Kia Motors pins hopes on luxury sedan sales

LOS ANGELES ― Kia Motors’ U.S. sales chief Wednesday expressed confidence in selling the carmaker’s first luxury sedan, the K900, despite its lukewarm sales over the past year since its debut. “There is a market for the $60,000 Kia car in the U.S.,” said Michael Sprague, executive vice president of sales and marketing of Kia Motors America, at the carmaker’s exhibition booth at the LA Auto Show. “There is a niche market for people who don’t want traditional German and American luxury cars and ar

MobilityNov. 23, 2014

[Herald Interview] Dressing up a tradition in new clothes

When Kim Sung-nyo began her three-year term as artistic director of the state-run National Changgeuk Company of Korea in March 2012, she had two things in mind. First was to lure younger and livelier audiences to changgeuk, Korean traditional opera based on pansori, a type of folk narrative. The second was to introduce diverse new forms and styles in changgeuk shows in an effort to transform it from an overlooked genre to the heart of the performing arts scene in Korea. “I was shocked when repor

CultureNov. 23, 2014

[Herald Interview] Blueside aims to take games mobile

BUSAN ― Blueside, a South Korean game company, said that its next strategic move would be developing games for mobile devices next year after the anticipated release of “Kingdom Under Fire 2” for Sony PlayStation 4 and PCs.Lee Sang-youn, CEO and producer of Blueside, said that the company ultimately seeks to make games that can be played on multiple platforms such as consoles, PCs and mobiles.Given its strength in developing games for consoles and PCs, the company has the capability to create “u

TechnologyNov. 21, 2014

[Herald Interview] Proficient process to get linguistic edge

Living in the land of the oft-touted “English fever,” Koreans are no strangers to working hard to achieve their academic goals. They try a number of techniques ranging from eating pages off English dictionaries ― a ritual that supposedly helps you “digest” the words you memorized ― to combing book stores for the “perfect vocabulary list.”But relying on rote memorization can only get you so far. Studying English as a foreign language requires a more proficient process, which is made possible by w

Social AffairsNov. 20, 2014

[Herald Interview] Virtuix aims to change landscape of virtual reality

Despite being hailed as a game changer in the world of tech, head-mounted virtual reality displays are still short of delivering a fully immersive experience for users because the technology is still too static and doesn’t require active physical movement.The Omni VR treadmill is out to change this. Virtuix, the U.S. startup that created the Omni, says it is certain to provide a wholly different experience ― one in which virtual reality can be a true reality. “We want to take virtual reality bey

TechnologyNov. 19, 2014

[Herald Interview] Bringing heaven down to earth

For pop-opera singer Lim Hyung-joo, 2014 has had some unexpected turns. At the start of the year, the 28-year-old musician had high hopes for his fifth full-length album, “Finally,” which came out at the end of 2013.Those hopes were crushed when the ferry Sewol sank on April 16. The country’s entire cultural scene came to a virtual standstill, as the nation mourned the loss of over 300 lives, mostly of them teenagers, in the tragic accident. Then, suddenly a song from his 2008 EP “My Hero” toppe

PerformanceNov. 19, 2014

[Herald Interview] U.N. body calls for transparency standards in investment arbitration

As arbitration remains a key solution to investment disputes, new U.N. rules on transparency in investor-state settlements will reinforce the benefits of existing treaties, public visibility to proceedings and efficiency of domestic legislation, UNCITRAL’s chief said. The convention on transparency in treaty-based investor-state arbitration would provide access to settlement procedures, documents and hearings that were kept secret in the past. The upgraded rules took effect in April and awaits a

Foreign AffairsNov. 18, 2014

[Herald Interview] ‘Korea, Japan more reliable than China’

South Korea and Japan have attained high rating scores from French trade insurance company COFACE, which ranks as one of the world’s top three credit insurers. China, on the other hand, may be downgraded due to the lack of legal protection for foreign companies and the Chinese companies’ unreliable payment process.“Korea is rated as A2, which is the second-highest grade, and this assessment is likely to last for a while,” said COFACE’s chief economic Yves Zlotowski in an interview with The Korea

Nov. 16, 2014

[Herald Interview] ‘Korea to step up investment in green technology’

Environmental protection is often associated with long-term visions and carefully designed projects. As with other industries, however, governments and agencies around the world are newly discovering the importance of speed in the worldwide competition to develop green technologies.The stakes could not be higher. The eco-friendly market is developing at a rapid pace, spurred by a slew of innovative technologies amid intensifying competition around the world. A revolutionary technological breakth

Social AffairsNov. 13, 2014

[Herald Interview] Creator touts real bond between horses and riders

Normand Latourelle, the producer and creator of “Cavalia,” describes his show as an ode to the millennia-old relationship between horses and human. “‘Cavalia’ is not a circus. It’s not a horse show. It is a show about horses and the bond between horses and human,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald inside one of the tents that make up the White Big Top, a makeshift structure specially designed for the Canadian touring production. “The horses are not forced to do this. There is a genui

CultureNov. 13, 2014