'Korean thread from Peace Corps days is woven through my life'

Amid the escalation of the Cold War, David Lassiter, then a 22-year-old college student in international relations, landed at Gimpo airport in 1966 as part of the maiden batch of US Peace Corps volunteers tasked with aiding South Korea’s post-war reconstruction. A lover of Chinese food who had not traveled outside the US and who was largely ignorant of Korean society, he came directly into solitude, homesickness and “culture shock,” among other snags, as soon as he began teaching English at Euij

Sept. 13, 2016

National Assembly speaker Chung begins trip to US

South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun will leave for the United States on Monday to strengthen cooperation between the legislatures of the two countries in promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, his office said.Chung is to be accompanied by the floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party, the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and the People's Party -- Chung Jin-suk, Woo Sang-ho and Park Jie-won, respectively.It is the first time that a parliamentary chief has trav

Sept. 12, 2016

Marrying technology and tradition in digital world

The Gothic Bead installation is a co-production by the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian Film Center Media Lab and Seneca College with 3-D scanning led by the AGO’s Lisa Ellis and the VR creative team led by French artist and designer Priam Givord. The medieval Christian sculpture with intricate inner engravings will be exhibited in this fall at the AGO in Toronto. (Ian Lefebvre / Art Gallery of Ontario)The work of Ana Serrano, chief digital officer of the Canadian Film Center, involves mergi

Sept. 12, 2016

Organic Irish food whets appetite

In Ireland, cows graze on unsoiled grass and feed on preserved hay in winter. Around the island on the western seaboard of Europe, oodles of salmon, crab, lobsters and mussels are netted to be consumed at home and shipped abroad. Under the initiative “Origin Green,” Irish seafood and agricultural products are increasingly marketed and sold worldwide as healthy edibles. A delegation of Irish trade mission representing the agri-food sector visited Korea last week to promote its industry and streng

Sept. 11, 2016

Novelist spells out joy and pain of storytelling

Tucked away in his seaside villa on the island of Ibiza off the eastern coast of Spain, Spanish writer Javier Moro toils eight hours a day in front of a computer screen, tortuously weaving words into sentences, paragraphs and chapters to perfect his novel.Sealed off from the rambunctious crowd outside, Moro withdraws into a “space of silence,” as he calls it, where he can let his imagination flourish. “I conceive literature as an intellectual and personal adventure,” he told The Korea Herald las

Sept. 11, 2016

Park to attend East Asia Summit

President Park Geun-hye will attend a regional strategic forum in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Thursday to tighten international cooperation in halting North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile programs.During the annual East Asia Summit, Park is expected to highlight the seriousness of Pyongyang's escalating military threats and the need for stronger global unity to pressure the communist regime into renouncing its nuclear ambitions.The forum comes after Pyongyang launched three mid-ran

Sept. 8, 2016

Obama, Park focus on THAAD during summit: White House

The planned deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea was a key topic of talks between US President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, a senior White House official said.Park and Obama held a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos, reaffirming their determination to counter North Korea's continued provocations and agreeing on the importance of China's role in enforcing sanctions on Pyongyang.White House Deputy National Security Ad

Sept. 8, 2016

Park urges ASEAN to show int'l resolve against NK nukes through 'words, actions'

President Park Geun-hye revved up her diplomacy Wednesday to thwart North Korea's nuclear ambitions, urging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to oppose Pyongyang's saber-rattling through "unequivocal words and actions." During the South Korea-ASEAN summit in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, Park highlighted that the communist state's evolving nuclear and missile programs pose a "great" threat to the peace of not only the Korean Peninsula but also the international community as a whole.

Sept. 8, 2016

Park, Abe hold summit over NK provocations, bilateral issues

President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday called for closer cooperation with Japan in countering North Korea's provocations and bringing about its denuclearization, saying the communist state's evolving nuclear and missile programs pose a "serious" threat to both countries. South Korean President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe ahead of a bilateral summit in the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Wednesday. (Yonhap)During a bilateral summit with Park, Japanese Prime M

Sept. 7, 2016

Park arrives in Laos to attend ASEAN, EAS summits

President Park Geun-hye arrived in Laos on Tuesday to attend a series of summits with the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where she is expected to call for stronger international unity against North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.Her four-day visit to the Laotian capital of Vientiane comes amid Pyongyang's continued provocations, including Monday's launch of three mid-range ballistic missiles. It is the third and last leg of her three-nation trip that also to

Sept. 6, 2016

Park, Obama to hold summit amid NK provocations

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday will hold a summit with her US counterpart Barack Obama in Vientiane to discuss an array of issues, including North Korea's continued provocations, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.The summit will be held in the afternoon -- hours after Park arrives in the Laotian capital to attend a series of summits with the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cheong Wa Dae said. Their talks were arranged amid Pyongyang's continued provocations, incl

Sept. 6, 2016

[News Analysis] Despite summit, THAAD tension likely to persist

Despite Seoul’s attempts to contain the rows with China over its plan to host a US anti-missile system, tension is expected to endure for the time being given the stark differences between the two countries’ positions, observers said Monday. President Park Geun-hye held a summit with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the margins of the Group of 20 conference in Hangzhou. The face-to-face meeting was their first since Seoul unveiled its decision last July to station a Terminal High Altitude A

Sept. 5, 2016

Park, Xi reconfirm differences over THAAD

President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday reconfirmed their differences over the planned deployment of a US anti-missile system to South Korea, but agreed to strengthen their "strategic communication," Park's office Cheong Wa Dae said.During the summit on the sidelines of an economic forum in China's eastern city of Hangzhou, Park repeated that the need for a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system on the Korean Peninsula will disappear if North Korea's nuclear

Sept. 5, 2016