The Iranian Embassy will help showcase the country’s handicraft treasures from Thursday to Sunday at the Korea Foundation Gallery in Seoul, marking the 2017 Iran-Korea Cultural Exchange Year. The event, “Amazing Hands: Craft Art from Iran,” will feature handicrafts, historical artifacts and carpets, among other things. It is hosted by Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization. The opening ceremony will take place Thursday at 4 p.m

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 20, 2017

Canadian Arctic scientist John England (left) and Canadian Inuit activist Caitlyn Baikie speak to The Korea Herald about the Arctic region’s precious ecosystem and challenges facing Inuit communities, respectively, at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul on Nov. 7 (Joel Lee/The Korea Herald)Canadian scientist John England has spent over 50 summers across Canada’s Arctic, painstakingly surveying its ecosystem and evolution from the Ice Age to present day.The 70-year-old University of Alberta professor e

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 13, 2017

Members of the Korea CQ Forum -- an intellectual and networking platform for opinion leaders -- organized by the Corea Image Communications Institute pose at a gathering at the Latvian Embassy in Seoul on Nov. 7.They listened to a lecture on fostering creativity in the age of automation by professor Lee Kwang-hyung at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s Department of Bio and Brain Engineering. In the photo are Latvian Ambassador to Korea Peteris Vaivars (tall person in the b

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 13, 2017

Polish Ambassador to Korea Piotr Ostaszewski (left) poses at restaurant Zelen in Itaewon in Seoul on Nov. 7 in celebration of the “Taste of Poland” food festival that runs through Nov. 30. Various soups (traditional sour soup with rye flour, borsch with sour cream), appetizers (vegetable salad with mayonnaise, cold jellied pork knuckles, meat dumplings, mushroom and sauerkraut dumplings), entrees (Bigos meat and cabbage stew, apple-stuffed duck, beef and mushroom stew, meat roulade with cucumber

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 13, 2017

South Africa has evolved from a safari-oriented destination to a world-class haven catering to diverse tastes of international travelers, according to the country’s top envoy to Korea. The country at the foot of Africa has been relatively unexplored by Korean visitors over the years, despite offering wide-ranging attractions from natural adventure to cultural heritage.“We are now one of the most sought-after destinations in the world offering a variety of unforgettable experiences in leisure, ec

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 13, 2017

The World Bank and Korea are working side by side to tackle some of the world’s most paramount economic challenges, said the multilateral institution’s senior executive, noting the partners increasingly draw on each other’s financial acumen and developmental expertise in the service of global sustainable development. Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank regional vice president of East Asia and the Pacific, stressed in an exclusive interview that Korea’s knowledge and experience in postwar economic growth

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 13, 2017

PARIS, Nov  12, 2017 (AFP) - EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier said Sunday that he is making contingency plans for the “possible” failure of divorce talks with Britain, which he has given two weeks to reach preliminary agreement on key issues.“It‘s not my (preferred) option,” he told French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD). “But it’s a possibility. Everyone needs to plan for it, member states and businesses alike. We too are preparing for it technically.”He recalled that without a deal on post-B

World News Nov. 12, 2017

MANILA, Nov  12, 2017 (AFP) - Hong Kong and Southeast Asian nations signed a free trade deal Sunday, in what one minister described as a “clear vote” against protectionism, as the United States withdraws into its “America First” rhetoric.The city, a special administrative region of China, forged the agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the sidelines of a summit in Manila to be attended by world leaders including US President Donald Trump. The ministers were meetin

World News Nov. 12, 2017

GENEVA, Nov  12, 2017 (AFP) - A group of vulnerable refugees from several African countries, who had been stuck in war-ravaged Libya, have been evacuated to Niger, the UN said Sunday.The UN refugee agency said the evacuation of 25 “extremely vulnerable refugees” from Libya Saturday marked the first of its kind.The chaos-ridden country has long been a major transit hub for migrants trying to reach Europe, and many refugees and migrants have fallen prey to serious abuse there at the hands of human

World News Nov. 12, 2017

Happy hour promotion at Park Hyatt SeoulPark Hyatt Seoul’s The Timber House is offering a happy hour course menu priced at 59,000 won per person. It features Japanese appetizers, izakaya dishes and shellfish noodles, with unlimited sake and Japanese beers daily from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. through Dec. 31.The course meal includes seasoned ark shells with a wasabi dressing, shrimps and caviar cooked with katsuo broth, tamagoyaki with cream and shrimps and bacon-wrapped asparagus with teriyaki sauce. Oth

Food Nov. 10, 2017

Millennium Seoul Hilton’s new director of sales and marketing, Tom Wang, fit almost too smoothly into his job upon arriving here this summer. “I felt totally at home at this hotel after arriving in Korea from Singapore, where I began my career over two decades ago,” Wang told The Korea Herald in an interview. The Singapore native described the five-star executive hotel in the heart of Seoul as his new “home away from home,” highlighting that the staff have “a sense of belonging and ownership.” T

Travel Nov. 10, 2017

Amid South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s weeklong tour of Southeast Asian countries that started Wednesday, a seminal report prefiguring a bright future relationship between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Korea has been released. “A survey on mutual perceptions of ASEAN and Korean youths,” co-published by the ASEAN-Korea Center and Korea Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, is an inquiry into the minds of young generations who will form the bedrock of the two regions’ sustainab

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 9, 2017

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway began service on Oct. 30 with its first official run across Azerbaijan, Georgia and the east of Turkey, greatly facilitating regional trade as part of China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative, according to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Seoul. The 846-kilometer project -- part and parcel of the Trans-Asian Railway Network, also known as the “Iron Silk Road” -- is expected to halve the time it takes to move goods from China to Turkey. It is a crucial part of the OBOR initi

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 6, 2017

A coalition of pro-American organizations here moved to welcome US President Donald Trump on his two-day visit to Korea starting Tuesday. “Our alliance was forged in blood and laid the foundation for freedom and the peace and prosperity of ROK. We stood and fought together in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq,” the ROK-US Friendship Association United said in a press statement.“The people of the Republic of Korea will never forget the noble sacrifices of US soldiers, sailors, airmen and marin

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 6, 2017

Iranian Ambassador to Korea Hassan Taherian has faithfully practiced Islam, believing that a life of piety, honesty and integrity is any Muslim’s starting point. At a time when different interpretations of Islam -- from purist to reformist, and from Shiite to Sunni -- are engrossing Iranian domestic politics and the larger Middle East, the envoy conveyed his personal view that a true Muslim ought to live scrupulously in line with Islamic teachings and norms, and not enforce his or her belief on

Diplomatic Circuit Nov. 6, 2017