Here are some of the events for the first month of 2015: Music and dance The first event of the New Year is a performance by Korean / Japanese experimental musical duo Tengger, in the Redchruch Brewery in Bethnal Green, 7 January Violinist Joo Yeon Sir has recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields (9 January) and the National … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 67)
Kim Jong Un’s 2015 New Year address
Here is the full text of Kim Jong Un’s 2015 New Year address, kindly provided by the DPRK embassy in London. Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, made a New Year address … [Read More]
President Park’s 2015 New Year Message
Here is the text of President Park Geun-hye’s 2015 New Year Message, sourced from the Blue House website. Fellow Koreans, New year 2015, the Year of the Sheep, has dawned. I hope all your dreams and hopes will come true throughout the year. This historic year marks the 70th anniversary of liberation and, at the … [Read More]
In pictures: Contemporary Korean Silversmithing and Jewellery at the KCC
The jewellery and silversmithing exhibition at the KCC is soon coming to an end, to make way for a fashion-related exhibition. Go along before it’s too late… Go along for the wonderful vessels of Kyosun Jung, whose use of silver wire in the decoration make the finished product look like the product of Moorcroft potteries: … [Read More]
Dulsori in Evelyn Glennie’s Songlines playlist
I’ve just belatedly been going through my recent purchases of Songlines magazine, the world music publication which gave Hyelim Kim a 4-star review this time last year. I spotted that their October 2014 edition featured a playlist recommended by Evelyn Glennie – of which the first track was by the Korean percussion group Dulsori: Drum … [Read More]
Chaebols muscle in on craft beer
There’s an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal’s Korean blog about the improvement in South Korea’s beer scene since the relaxation of rules which prohibited you from selling beer unless you were one of the big boys. But the small brewers are now facing competition from a craft beer pub set up by one … [Read More]
Meet the Met’s Korean Community Engagement Officer
Theatre 4 All’s Radio Bang is a regular internet radio broadcast focusing on the Korean community in New Malden and Kingston. Shin Bona and Hwang Sumin do valuable work in building bridges between the Koreans and non-Koreans. In this broadcast, they chat with Glenna De Bosco, the Korean Engagement Officer for the Metropolitan Police. Radio … [Read More]
Season’s Greetings to all our readers
Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all of LKL’s readers, friends and contributors. Have a peaceful break. For this year’s holiday season we commissioned a special London Korean winter design from the wonderful Jieun Kim aka The Drawing Hand. We are delighted with the results, so we’re sharing it with you here. … [Read More]
In pictures: Ham Jin, Somewhere Underneath – at HADA Contemporary
If you go to the current exhibition at HADA Contemporary, make sure you take a magnifying glass. The grotesque, rather disturbing, sculptures are so tiny that if your eyesight isn’t very good they might look like a smudge on the wall. This little fellow, for example, if you were to straighten his hair, would be … [Read More]
Top 10 restaurants in Seocho and Gangnam
I try to avoid Gangnam and Seocho if I possibly can, other than as the location of the Nambu bus terminal. But at least now if I do get stuck there The Culture Trip has provided a list of the top 10 restaurants in the area. [Read More]
Festival Film reviews: we also went to…
We’ve almost finished clearing the London Korean Film Festival backlog, the only major review outstanding now being Park Chan-kyong’s fascinating documentary Manshin. While I’m polishing that, here are a few brief reviews of the films I didn’t feel moved to write dedicated articles about. Han Gong-ju A heavy and depressing story redeemed by the sensitive … [Read More]
UN General Assembly passes resolution on DPRK Human Rights
On 18 December the UN General Assembly passed its resolution condemning the DPRK’s Human Rights record by 116 votes to 20, with 53 abstentions. China voted against. Here are the links to the relevant documents UN Press release Official record of the meeting Full text of the resolution [Read More]
Festival Film Review: This Road Called Life
Following on from the success of their feature-length animation Green Days, Studio MWP worked with Korean TV broadcaster EBS to produce a trio of short films which adapt three familiar short stories which are studied by most Koreans in high school: Yi Hyo-seok’s Buckwheat Season, Kim Yu-jeong’s Spring, Spring, and A Lucky Day by Hyun … [Read More]
UK Foreign Office trains DPRK journalists
According to today’s Sunday Express, A group of 46 North Korean “journalists” are on a UK study course in media skills funded by the Foreign Office… Lord Alton of Liverpool, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea, accused the Foreign Office of “investing in people who are official mouthpieces of the regime”…The Foreign … [Read More]
Korean War Memorial unveiled in London
The South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se had a busy Wednesday last week as part of a three-day visit to the UK. According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, top of the agenda was the first annual Strategic Dialogue meeting between the two countries agreed during President Park’s state visit last year. The … [Read More]
Book review: Lee Jung-myung — The Investigation
Lee Jung-myung: The Investigation Translated by Kim Chi-young Mantle, 2014, 288pp The central character in The Investigation is a real historical figure: Yun Dong-ju, a poet who had the misfortune to live in the Japanese colonial period. There can be few worse fates for a poet than to be prohibited from writing in his native … [Read More]