The Cultural Heritage Administration said Thursday that it has designated two printed volumes of the “Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms)” as National Treasure No. 306-4. Volumes No. 4 and No. 5 of the “Samguk Yusa,” a collection of legends and folktales mainly from Korea’s Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Silla, Baekje) period and printed using wooden blocks, are currently owned by Beomeosa, a Buddhist temple in Busan. They were originally owned by Beomeosa&

Culture Aug. 29, 2020

The National Museum of Korea announced Monday that it has purchased two state-designated treasures from the Kansong Art Museum. The newly acquired items -- Treasure No. 284, Gilt-Bronze Standing Buddha, and Treasure No. 285, Gilt-Bronze Standing Bodhisattva -- will be displayed in the museum’s permanent exhibition hall when it reopens. The museum shut down Aug. 16 after one of its employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The two state-designated treasures were put up for a

Arts & Design Aug. 24, 2020

Walt Disney Co. Korea on Thursday confirmed that Marvel’s horror-superhero film “The New Mutants” will hit theaters in South Korea next month. The distributor has not announced the specific release date. “The New Mutants” was scheduled to open here in April this year, but was forced to postpone the plan due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. An extension of the “X-Men” franchise, “The New Mutants” is about young mutants, involving c

Film Aug. 14, 2020

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Friday announced that it will open Gyeongbokgung to visitors in the evening from Sept. 2 to Dec. 4. During this time, the palace will accept up to 4,500 nighttime visitors per day from 7 p.m to 9:30 p.m. The palace is closed on Tuesdays. The CHA added that it will sell 2,500 tickets online, while selling 2,000 tickets on-site. The online tickets can be booked on portal giant Naver’s Booking platform. Before entering the site, people who made res

Travel Aug. 14, 2020

Two events will be held at Gyeongbokgung this month to give visitors a literal taste of Joseon royal life. First held in 2016, the Gyeongbokgung Starlight Tour includes a tasting of an everyday meal for the king and queen, traditional music performances and a guided tour of the grounds. This year’s night tour begins at Heungnyemun Gate and offers an exclusive tour of the two halls--Jipgyeongdang and Hamhwadang -- which are normally not open to the public during the night tour. The to

Travel Aug. 12, 2020

The Korea Foundation, K-pop powerhouse Big Hit Entertainment’s education business unit Big Hit Edu and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies are working together to develop and provide Korean language learning programs. As their first project together, they will provide a program for KF‘s e-school lectures for universities overseas, including Middlebury College in the US, Ecole Normale Superieure and EDHEC Business School in France this year. The organization has been providing con

Culture Aug. 11, 2020

The National Intangible Heritage Center in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, is holding the K-Intangible Heritage Festival from Thursday to Saturday. Under the theme of “Re:Heritage Connect,” the inaugural festival will offer one-day classes for foreigners living in Korea to learn and experience intangible heritages of Korea. Performances of “Daechwita,” a genre of traditional Korean music that was performed at parades of kings and other military ceremonies, and Korean t

Culture Aug. 10, 2020

On July 30, the Indian government announced the selection of Korean language as one of the foreign languages taught at secondary school level. Following the announcement from India, the Korean Culture Ministry on Thursday claimed that the Korean Cultural Center in India and the Korean Embassy in New Dehli played a crucial role in appealing the need to have Korean on the list. “Since last year, we had asked that Korean language be listed on the foreign language list. We were expecting t

Culture Aug. 9, 2020

Hip-pop artist Simon Dominic will be performing in the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts’ Sejong Grand Theater in central Seoul on Sept. 8. The Sejong Center for the Performing Arts said it was special for a hip-pop artist to perform at the center, which usually holds classical music performances. “Rapper Beenzino once performed in our concert hall as a guest singer, but other than that, no other hip-hop artist has performed at the Sejong Center,” the center said in a s

Performance Aug. 9, 2020

The 14th Grand Mint Festival will take place at Olympic Park, eastern Seoul, on Oct. 24 and 25 with a limited audience due to the spread of COVID-19. The festival organizers said they will sell less than half of the tickets sold in previous years. Last year around 40,000 tickets were sold. There will be no standing room entrance. Attendees will be able to enjoy the festival in the picnic zone apart from each other to comply with social distancing guidelines. The organizers added that they

Performance Aug. 7, 2020

“I am using YouTube Premium to skip advertisements. Little did I know back then that I was only avoiding the advertisements to watch another 10-minute-long advertisement video,” a subscriber to popular YouTube channel Eat With Boki commented. “I’m beyond disappointed. Here, I thought she’s a nice genuine person,” another subscriber wrote. These comments were posted after Moon Boki, the YouTuber behind the self-titled Eat With Boki meokbang channel, which

Culture Aug. 5, 2020

An online exhibition of artifacts from the Sinan shipwreck opened Tuesday, showing the vessels and coins, among other items, that were dug up from the ocean floor during an eight-year underwater salvage operation. According to the National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage, which organized the online exhibition, the ship, which is estimated to weigh more than 200 tons, sunk while carrying priceless cargo in 1323. The ship left from the port of Ningbo in China and was headed for

Culture Aug. 4, 2020

JEJU CITY -- “Please turn off all the flashlights,” Ki Jin-seok, a curator of Jeju World Natural Heritage Center, said during a press tour of a restricted section of Manjanggul. Unlike the section of the cave that is open to the public, this area does not have a single light installed. The cave soon became pitch dark. 　 “Even after a while, your eyes will not get used to this darkness, because there is no light at all here,” Ki said. Manjanggul is a 7.4-kilometer-l

Travel Aug. 2, 2020

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Thursday said that approximately 10 meters of the Gongsanseong Fortress have collapsed due to heavy rain during the last two days. The 2.5-kilometer-long fortress was built during the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC-AD 660) and lies along the mountain ridge and valley near Geum River in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. In 2015, eight ancient Baekje historic areas, including Gongsanseong Fortress, were collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, be

Culture July 30, 2020

The Korea Communication Standards Commission on Thursday issued a warning to SBS TV series “Backstreet Rookie” for airing provocative and inappropriate scenes. The KCSC noted scenes such as underage female high school student character Saet-byul kissing an adult male stranger while asking him to buy a pack of cigarettes for her are against its regulation on maintaining integrity and also using language fit for broadcast. “In the process of producing an R-rated webtoon into

Television July 30, 2020