An alternative travel experience summary by Aashish Gadhvi My first trip to Korea was something I had been looking forward to and preparing for with great enthusiasm. Since my initial interest in Korean cinema/sports, I had become a fully-fledged Korean fanatic and digested all sorts of Korean goodies at every opportunity. So going to Korea … [Read More]
Category: Formats (page 86)
The $54 million pair of pants
He’s been christened “Pants man”, he’s had vilification heaped on him, and may even lose his job, but still he battles on. He’s Washington judge Roy Pearson who’s been suing Custom Cleaners, owned by Korean immigrants Ki, Jin and Soo Chung, for rather a large sum of money for allegedly losing his trousers. He clearly … [Read More]
KEB blow by blow
Reports of HSBC’s renewed interest in KEB have given me the impetus to resurrect a post which has been work-in-progress for a while. I’ve been periodically trying to google back in time to reconstruct the whole KEB saga, and yesterday’s FT coverage gave a very useful framework on which to build. So here is another … [Read More]
Britain, Korea linked in airline “price fixing”
Both BA and KAL get multi-million fines, while equally guilty sneaks Virgin and Lufthansa escape punishment. Whatever, I’ll still fly Virgin in preference to BA whenever I can. Links: British Airways and Korean Air Lines fined by regulators for price-fixing, International Herald Tribune, 1 August 2007. Also covered by Reuters. [Read More]
Pastor Bae Hyun-kyu
Just received from a reader On behaf of Avaaz.org, I am asking the Korean Community to remeber the death of Pastor Bae Hyun-Kyu who was killed on his 42nd birthday on Wednesday 25th July by the Taliban militia in Central Afghanistan. Also, let us remember the 22 remaining hostage in Ghazni, who were due to … [Read More]
Fakes and curruption in art and academia
There has been a number of stories of fakes recently. Here’s a brief round-up of links 1 Shin Jeong-ah. Dongguk University Fires Bogus Professor, Korea Times, 20 July Stroke of luck, raw talent fueled Shin’s ascent, JoongAng Daily, 14 July. Some selected extracts: Shin Jeong-ah was 23 when the 1995 collapse of the Sampoong Department … [Read More]
KORUS links
The show’s not over yet on the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, but while there’s a lull in the proceedings I’m taking the opportunity to post a few links which I’ll update as necessary. 1. The text of the draft agreement The full text – an index of all the pdf documents which make up the … [Read More]
Hanwha and Kim Seung-youn links
A lazy post to bring together some of the Hanwha coverage. Interestingly, not many of the bloggers seem to have shown much interest in the story, as far as I can see. (South Korean police officers carry the seizures after searching at home of Hanwha Group Chairman and CEO Kim Seung-youn in Seoul, South Korea, … [Read More]
Unfortunate headline of the week…
…goes to the Chosun Ilbo for Korean Hurt in Virginia College Massacre (timed at 8:39 KST, 17 April) I guess it’s the pitfalls of reporting news as it happens. The next Chosun Ilbo article on the topic reads: Virginia Tech Shooter Was Korean (timed at 7:48 KST, 18 April). In due course I’ll update this … [Read More]
Bae Doo-na’s London Photo Journal
Thanks to Mark Russell over at Korea Pop Wars for news of a photo journal of Bae Doo-na’s visit to London. Can any Korean speakers out there have a read of what appears to be Ms Bae’s official blog at Naver, and tell me how to get hold of the book? Update 11 April: It’s … [Read More]
Think Korea 2006: a review of the year
2006 was a great year for Korean culture in London. I can’t rank it against previous years because this was the first time I’ve taken it upon myself actively to follow as many Korean-related events as I can, but for the wide range of things on show I think it must be one of the … [Read More]
Priceless
A picture to gladden the heart. I assume, based on the swords being carried (presumably not standard contemporary battlefield issue) that this is a photo of a rehearsal for a public performance. Thanks as ever to Tom Coyner for this treasure. And another, unrelated, bizarre item from the North, from Der Spiegel: this coming weekend … [Read More]
Football fever grips Seoul
With the world cup kicking off in Germany on 9 June, South Koreans are hoping for a repeat of their 2002 success: An image from the BBC’s website (above) and one from the Chosun Ilbo (below). [Read More]
Capital markets consolidation
The Asia Times has a good article on the Capital Markets Consolidation Act. Thanks to the Flying Yangban for spotting it. [Read More]
A day in the life of a Kim Jong-il impersonator
This article on the Yonhap website is worth a look describing the professional rivalry between two Kim Jong-il lookalikes Kim Young-sik and Bae Eun-sik. Of the two, Kim Young-sik appears to be the better known, at least outside of Korea. He has been featured in an Australian TV news item and also in an article … [Read More]
Celeb watch
A couple of items from today’s Chosun Ilbo which I didn’t want to lose: (1) Lee Young-ae’s Japanese fans tell her she looks as if she’s 61 years old (2) Rain confirmed in Time 100 as one of the world’s most influential entertainers. The KBS site has a rather more fetching photo of the star … [Read More]