Most Popular
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Psy's touch or new trend in music? P Nation’s solo stars lose their shine
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Yoon warns North Korea against nuclear attack attempt
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Seoul to hold grand military parade on Tuesday, disrupting major city routes
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81-year-old model awarded ‘best dressed’ in Miss Universe Korea
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Shut up and dance
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Seoul mayor suggests shift in immigration policy
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NewJeans fans corner Hybe amid PR backlash, looming National Assembly audit
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Israel targets Palestinian group in first strike on Beirut center
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Brit pop legend Oasis to perform in Seoul next year
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'Smart pill'? ADHD treatment prescriptions spike this year
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Itaewon GVC announces volunteer activities
Itaewon Global Village Center has announced its volunteering program for January.The activities include helping people at Yongsan Center for the Disabled make craftworks for sale on Jan. 8.On Jan. 19 native- and nonnative-speaking volunteers will join an English conversation class at a Yongsan Senior Welfare Center as part of an initiative to help old people fight Alzheimer’s disease, and on Jan. 20 the Itaewon GVC will volunteer at Young Aena’s Home for children with cerebral palsy.Activities t
Expat LivingDec. 30, 2015
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Volunteers invited to help out at Seoul home for disabled
A group of volunteers will get together to help out at Angel House, a center in northwest Seoul that is home to about 50 disabled residents. The volunteers go once or twice a month to the house to clean the facilities, do laundry, cook and help with basic personal hygiene for the residents.Joining in requires a 10,000 won donation, which goes toward facility upkeep and food for residents and volunteers.The group meets at 1:30 p.m. at Yeonsinnae Subway Station on Line No. 3.To join in or get more
Expat LivingDec. 30, 2015
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Gwangju center offers cultural courses
Gwangju International Center is running a program of cultural classes in January on a range of language and other subjects.Adult courses include basic Spanish, Japanese and Italian, as well as classes on K-pop and calligraphy. There are children’s courses on Saturdays. Schedules for the adult classes vary.The weekly classes run from Jan. 5-30 and registration closes Monday.Tuition fees are 40,000 won for all classes except English conversation, which is 80,000 won. Fees do not include textbook c
Expat LivingDec. 30, 2015
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Top expat blog closes as Marmot goes back into his hole
One of Korea’s most high-profile expat blogs has shut off its server space after 12 years online.Robert Koehler’s Marmot’s Hole blog was a mainstay of the expat blogosphere, but was closed Monday, as the author said he was no longer willing to commit the time and money needed to maintain it.“I’ve been doing it since 2003 and, you know, I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. And frankly it was more aggravation than it was anything else,” he said.“To be honest, blogging is, I think to some extent it’s
Expat LivingDec. 30, 2015
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[Graphic News] 2015 in numbers
Dec. 30, 2015
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Korea on tough road to transformation
Song Young-ki, the 28-year-old CEO of start-up DLighter, has a chic office in the business district of Gwanghwamun in central Seoul. Though his 1-year-old company has yet to generate revenue as its mobile app is still in the pilot stage, Song does not have to worry about rent or look for coffee shops that provide free Wi-Fi access.Furnished with desks and sofas designed in a futuristic concept and even a foosball table, the 320-pyeong (1,058-square-meter) office is where he spends days and night
IndustryDec. 30, 2015
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One gadget to rule them all: LGE touts smart appliance gateway
After releasing an eye-catching gadget that transforms home appliances into connected products earlier this year, LG Electronics on Wednesday unveiled a new device that serves as a gateway to those smart products.Dubbed the SmartThinQ Hub, the device shows the statuses of connected devices either on its display placed on the top of the cylindrical body or via users’ smartphones. A models poses with SmartThinQ Hub, a cylinder-shaped gadget that collects the data of smart home appliances and shows
TechnologyDec. 30, 2015
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Expats satisfied with support centers: survey
Foreign residents in the capital are “very satisfied” with services of public support facilities, a survey showed. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s survey that included 760 foreigners from October to November, the satisfaction rate stood at 4.56 out of 5 points. The surveyed queried participants on three parts: accessibility and cleanness of the facility; hospitality and expertise of center employees; and contents of programs. The support centers received the highest score in dai
Social AffairsDec. 30, 2015
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City to toll bell for New Year
Seoul City will mark the New Year with a bell-tolling ceremony in the center of the capital as part of its annual event, officials said. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is set to ring the bell at Bosingak Pavilion on Thursday night a total of 33 times with 11 citizens chosen as representatives for the year 2015.The guests include a doctor who reopened his clinic after successfully containing the Middle East respiratory syndrome and a firefighter who saved 11 live
Social AffairsDec. 30, 2015
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A glimpse of upper-class lifestyle in the early days of modern Korea
The early 20th-century hanok mansion Baek In-je House overlooks Bukchon Hanok Village, high-rise office towers in Jongno and major landmarks of the capital city such as Namsan Tower. Some 75 years ago, the mansion’s first owner Han Sang-ryong (1880-1947), a banker and business magnate, described the view from his house in his memoir: “It’s like looking at the movement of black waves,” looking down long stretches of charcoal-black hanok roofs in the 1940s. Bukchon has traditionally been one of Ko
CultureDec. 30, 2015
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Creative economy center supports start-ups to go global
Despite the influx of Chinese tourists, small shops and restaurants in Korea often fail to cater services to travelers due mainly to budget constraints. Below-par services have disappointed many Chinese visitors, curbing their plans to visit the country again.Born and raised on the southern resort island of Jejudo, Lee Min-seok, cofounder and general director of mobile travel application start-up TNDN, wanted to break what he called an “endless vicious circle” in the Korean tourism industry. Lee
TechnologyDec. 30, 2015
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77% of South Koreans see need for ‘filial duty contracts’
More than 75 percent of South Koreans surveyed by a local pollster think “filial duty contracts” -- a legal document that makes it mandatory for all grown children to financially and emotionally care for their aged parents -- are necessary should they receive any gifts such as real estate or stocks from them. The survey results were released two days after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of an elderly father who filed a suit against his son, who, in spite of signing a filial duty contract, did
Social AffairsDec. 30, 2015
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Manufacturers’ operating rate hits 6-year low
Sluggish exports dragged down the average operating rate of Korea’s manufacturing industry to 72.7 percent last month, marking the lowest level since April 2009, government data showed Wednesday.According to a report by Statistics Korea, the nation’s overall industrial output also fell for the second straight month in November. Overall industrial production dropped 0.5 percent last month from a month earlier, after a 1.3 percent on-month decline in October, the agency noted. In the aftermath of
Latest NewsDec. 30, 2015
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Ssangyong ends 6-year labor dispute
Ssangyong Motor’s management and labor union reached a landmark agreement Wednesday to incrementally rehire a group of workers dismissed in 2009 and normalize their relations. The official settlement concludes a six-year-long dispute that began when Ssangyong Motor laid off 2,646 workers, or some 37 percent of its workforce, in April 2009, sparking mass strikes and protests from the dismissed employees.Ssangyong Motor CEO Choi Johng-sik (center), labor union leader Hong Bong-seok (right) and hea
MobilityDec. 30, 2015
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[David Ignatius] Iran is not yet open for business
One of the arguments for the Iran nuclear deal was that it would encourage greater openness and investment from the West. But Iranian hard-liners have been working in recent months to sabotage the proponents of economic globalization and change. The clearest example is the case of an Iranian-American businessman named Siamak Namazi, 44, who was arrested around Oct. 14. Iran hasn’t announced any formal charges, but he has been accused in the Iranian press of being a tool of such institutions as
ViewpointsDec. 30, 2015
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[Noah Feldman] Apology isn’t justice for Korea’s ‘comfort women’
At long last, Korea’s “comfort women” are getting a real apology from Japan’s government for being forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II. But the moment is bittersweet, and not just because it’s taken 70 years. The apology comes not out of a change in Japanese sentiment, but from a change in geopolitics -- namely, the rise of China and the increasing need for Japan and South Korea to cooperate on mutual defense. And it comes at the price of a promise by the South Ko
ViewpointsDec. 30, 2015
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New year, new season of classical performances
As 2015 comes to an end, the local music stage is gearing up for its next season of classics, from the highly anticipated performances of Cho Seong-jin and his fellow International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition competitors to the taste of international prestige with the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies. Below are some highlighted performances of 2016. Steve Barakatt Canadian pianist Steve Barakatt (Rainbow Bridge Story) Canadian pianist and composer Steve Barakatt and the Herald Phil
PerformanceDec. 30, 2015
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[팟캐스트](126) 일본 전시 성노예화 사과 외 1건
진행자: 송상호, Paul Kerry 1. 일본, 전시 성노예화 사과 기사요약: 한일 양국은 28일 외교장관 회담을 개최한 후 24년동안 끌어온 위안부 문제에 타협안을 마련했다. 일본은 아베 신조 총리의 이름으로 공식 사과와 반성을 표했고, 한국 정부가 위안부 피해자를 위해 설립할 재단에 10억 엔을 출연하기로 했다. 하지만, 피해 당사자들이 반발하고 있어 앞으로 합의 집행에 난항이 예상된다. 아이튠즈(아이폰): https://itunes.apple.com/kr/podcast/koliaheleoldeu-paskaeseuteu/id686406253?mt=2 팟빵 (안드로이드): http://www.podbbang.com/ch/6638 Japan officially apologizes, offers funds [1] Japan on Monday expressed its apology and contrition for its colonial-era sexual ensl
PodcastDec. 30, 2015
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[Editorial] Specter of collusion
The Constitutional Court has recently ruled that the Political Funds Act banning political parties from forming supporters’ associations to collect political funds is unconstitutional. It set June 30, 2017 as the deadline to amend the relevant provisions of the act.The provisions in question allow only individual politicians, including lawmakers, presidential candidates and candidates for party leadership competitions, to form supporters’ associations and collect political funds.The court said t
EditorialDec. 30, 2015
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[Editorial] A year of frustration
When it comes to domestic politics, President Park Geun-hye had a frustrating year in 2015. There being no tradition of compromise and mutual respect among political parties, she has had difficulty throughout the year enlisting cooperation from the main opposition party on her reform agenda. In her New Year news conference on Jan. 12, Park pledged to turn 2015 into “a year of hope,” as the year, with no nationwide elections scheduled, would offer her administration a golden opportunity to regain
EditorialDec. 30, 2015