London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Dulsori evening class # 2

Yesterday evening we learnt the backhand. And, in retrospect, as I struggled last night to notate what we learned, we also did triplets. We were without the interpreter yesterday, so 95% of the class was conducted in Korean. Some of the Korean students took pity on us non-Koreans (we had a new joiner, another Brit, … [Read More]

Kim Jong-il’s book on cinema

Filmbrain has spotted – and bought and, even more nobly, read – a translation of Kim Jong-il’s On the Art of Cinema. A snip at £22.50 from Amazon. I’ll add it to my wishlist, but I’m afraid it’s not top of the list! Thanks to atom over at koreanfilm.org for spotting this. Links: Buy at … [Read More]

Cooking in the Danger Zone: South Korea (BBC4)

Following on the success of zany TV series like Holidays in the Axis of Evil (the DPRK show was rather good, I thought), and mindful of the sadistic pleasure we take in watching minor celebrities eating kangaroo testicles in jungle reality shows, TV execs are now going to treat us to “Cooking in the Danger … [Read More]

Dulsori evening class #1

I ache. My brain aches from concentrating too much (maybe I should relax and go with the flow, but that only happens when at least three pints of London Pride have gone down my neck). The insides of my legs ache: in order to play the changgo you need to be at least a black … [Read More]

Motoring supplement

Ever on the look-out for yet more subjects on which I am totally unqualified to speak, this time I’m trying my hand as motoring correspondent. I don’t have a car (I don’t need one in London), and on the rare occasions when I need a set of wheels I use the local rental shop, which … [Read More]

Free books on the internet

I recently joined the Korea Studies mailing list at koreaweb.ws. Amid the emails on upcoming academic conferences and professorial vacancies there’s frequently an interesting nugget or two for an amateur like me. Recently there have been some communications about classic out-of-copyright books being available for free over the internet. In fact one academic, Thomas Duvernay, … [Read More]

Condoms as a lucky charm

The FT’s Seoul correspondent, Anna Fifield, had a busy week last week. Head office would have been wanting her to divine what is going on in the brains of the DPRK’s leadership – not an easy task, and everyone’s got something to say on the subject. Fifield’s piece in Saturday’s FT was one of the … [Read More]

DPRK e-bulletin: missile tests

Received 7 July 2006 from the Embassy of DPR of Korea in London: DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Its Missile Launches Pyongyang, July 6 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Thursday as regards the missile launches in the DPRK: In the wake … [Read More]

Crying Nut to tour the US

This story has to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt, because it comes from KBS. But now its members have returned from military service the band has reformed. They are about to release their fifth album, and will tour it to the States later this year. If anyone knows if they’ll be playing … [Read More]

Interactive Korean-American TV

I got an email yesterday from Dion Park at www.iKATV.com, asking for a plug. Happy to oblige. I visited the site and found it a bit baffling at first – all I could find was some brief and blurred YouTube videos. But Dion explained later that the website is still in prototype and is still … [Read More]

Mark Clifford: Troubled Tiger

(M.E. Sharpe / Routledge 1998) Chronicles the modern history of Korea from the 1960s to the mid-90s, focusing on the drive for economic growth and the control exerted by the Blue House over the direction of the economy. Clifford gives us a politically balanced view, emphasising the successes of Park Chung-hee, but not shrinking from … [Read More]

Is Samphire available in Korea?

Samphire is this decade’s rocket. Ten or 15 years ago, no-one had heard of the peppery salad leaf. At one yuppy dinner party in the early 90s I recall having eaten it boiled like spinach (can’t remember what it tasted like), and you could only get hold of it by growing it yourself. Now it’s … [Read More]

July events 2006

July is the month for Korean drumming. There’s a concert at the Purcell Room on 17 July, and evening classes on Korean drumming at SOAS that week 17-21 July. As a culmination of that week, there’s a special drumming event in Russell Square on the Friday night, from 7pm. On Tuesday 25 July there’s a … [Read More]