Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 68, was chosen for the Seoul Peace Prize this year for his contributions to the growth of the Indian and global economies, crediting “Modinomics” for reducing social and economic disparity between rich and poor.The Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, headed by Chairman Kwon E-hyock, made the announcement Thursday, following its final selection meeting in Jung-gu, Seoul.Selection Committee President Choe Chung-ho stated the 12-member committee conducted a r

People Oct. 24, 2018

K-pop singer Jung Joon-young, 29, will try his luck at running a Korean restaurant in none other than the culinary connoisseur city of Paris.Jung will open Maison de Coree next year, according to his agency, C9 Entertainment, Tuesday. Prior to a full-fledged launch, Jung will test the waters with a pop-up store at 80 Rue des Tournelles in the third arrondissement in Paris from Oct. 29 to Nov. 17. At Jung’s side will be chef Lee Jun of Seoul’s Michelin one-star contemporary cuisine restaurant Soi

Performance Oct. 23, 2018

The shows are amazing at the 2019 S/S Hera Seoul Fashion Week, but the fun spills out to the streets. Brightly dyed hair was a visible trend at Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Friday, alongside see-through blouses, neon tops and transparent plastic bags.Oversized jackets, baggy pants, leopard print and fashionable eyewear also drew attention.  (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea He

Culture Oct. 19, 2018

Designer Hanhee Kathleen Kye’s 2019 spring-summer show at HERA Seoul Fashion Week on Friday attracted a slew of K-pop celebrities in the audience, as well as strutting down the catwalk for her brand KYE. In the photo, from left, are GWSN’s Lena, singer Ko Sung-min, makeup artist Risabe, 9 Muses’ Kyungri, model Irene, f(X)’s Amber, Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyoen, Chungha, AKMU’s Lee Su-hyun and veteran singer Noh Sa-yeon.  (Lim Je

Performance Oct. 19, 2018

NCT’s Lucas strutted with nonchalant confidence in the KYE show at Hera Seoul Fashion Week, Friday.Sitting in the front row at the show was f(x)’s Amber, who whispered to Hyoyeon of Girls’ Generation as Lucas walked in front of them.A look of recognition flashed across Hyoyeon’s eyes as she took another measure of Lucas, while Amber took photos of him. (HERA Seoul Fashion Week) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald)By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heralcorp.com)

Performance Oct. 19, 2018

Na Young-seok, the producer of “Grandpas over Flowers,” a TV entertainment show remade in the US as “Better Late Than Never,” said he would sue the people behind rumors he was having an affair with actress Jung Yu-mi. Jung was in the cast of one of Na’s more recent series, “Youn’s Kitchen.” The show was a hit, and a pioneering work that took Korean celebrities overseas to Gili Trawangan Island in Indonesia in season one and a beachside Spanish town of Garachico in season two for them to start ov

Television Oct. 18, 2018

Immigration authorities said Wednesday they uncovered the irregular practices of a Korean agency that illegally hired Vietnamese students who entered the country to learn the local language.Between November 2016 and August 2018, the agency, located in Gyeonggi Province, hired 262 Vietnamese university students and put them to work at various subcontractor firms for large-scale supermarkets’ distribution centers. The agency profiteered off the wages the students received. If a student earned 10,0

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2018

Six-member band Kiha & The Faces announced in the dark of the night on Wednesday they would disband year-end after releasing the group’s final and the fifth regular album in November.Having worked together for 10 years, the members of Kiha & The Faces -- Jang Ki-ha, Lee Min-ki, Jeong Jung-yeop, Lee Jong-min, Yohei Hasegawa and Jeon Il-jun -- will go their separate ways after their final album as a group. “The soon-to-released fifth album will be the final work of Kiha & The Faces,” each member u

Performance Oct. 18, 2018

Proficiency in the English language adds to a person’s charm, it seems, as Korean celebrities update their social media feeds with The Korea Herald, the nation’s No. 1 English news daily, as props in their photo shoot or as inflight reading materials.1. Yang Se-hyeongYang Se-hyeong is the latest to join the trend with The Korea Herald. On Tuesday, Yang updated his Instagram with a series of black-and-white photos dressed in a smart suit. In one of the shots, Yang holds up The Korea Herald paper,

Television Oct. 18, 2018

Tens of thousands of taxi drivers in South Korea will suspend operation on Thursday in protest of Kakao’s plan to launch a carpool service.The taxi drivers are expected to gather at 2 p.m. at Gwanghwamun Square in the center of Seoul to “campaign to build order in taxi operation business and fight against illegal carpooling.”The controversy began with Kakao’s recent announcement it would launch a carpooling service by year-end to give users an alternative option of sharing rides in personal vehi

Social Affairs Oct. 17, 2018

YouTube servers that went down causing worldwide bafflement Wednesday morning were restored after about an hour.The site was restored at 11:38 a.m. by which time nearly 5,000 tweets had inundated Twitter in Korea with a hashtag for “YouTube Server.”From around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, YouTube users worldwide faced the message “500 Internal Server Error” upon trying to visit the video streaming site. The error page explained, “Sorry, something went wrong,” but added, “A team of highly trained monkey

Industry Oct. 17, 2018

YouTube users worldwide faced the message “500 Internal Servor Error” upon trying to visit the video streaming site, Wednesday.The error page explains, “Sorry, something went wrong,” but adds, “A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.”A YouTube Korea representative told The Korea Herald they are “internally investigating the temporary error” that has occurred globally. As of the time of publication, some site functionality had been restored, but videos wo

Industry Oct. 17, 2018

“We Dance Festival” took place at Yeouido Hangang Park on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The festival comprised of ballet, urban, jazz, tango, salsa and swing dance, flash mobs and open dance lessons. Guerrila performances of B-boy breakdancing and jazz dance were held from 1 p.m., followed by 500 swing dancers and a live band performed for the 6 p.m. opening show.Between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., 39 dance teams spanning six genres of dance, selected to perform through prior contest, held a relay perf

Culture Oct. 14, 2018

Visitors to Seoullo 7017 will be able to accomplish missions on an interactive mobile game app while walking along the pedestrian overpass in Jung-gu, Seoul, starting Wednesday. Seoul Metropolitan City and the Seoul Tourism Organization have jointly launched a game called “City of Love: Seoul,” which will be available from Wednesday through end-November. The game is offered through the Real World app, which can be downloaded free of charge.  Seoullo 7017 (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald) (realwor

Travel Oct. 9, 2018

Sexual offenses were the most cited reason for taxi license revocations in South Korea over the past four years, according to findings presented by Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party on Tuesday. Liberty Korea Party floor leader Kim found through data released by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority that from 2015 through August 2018, cases of taxi drivers committing sex-related crimes amounted to 217, the highest contributor to license terminations.The next most co

Social Affairs Oct. 9, 2018