During his visit to London next week Seoul’s Mayor will find time for a talk at Chatham House: Citizen Democracy in the Republic of Korea 3 April 2017 – 10:00am to 11:00am Wonsoon Park, Mayor of Seoul Chair: John Nilsson-Wright, Senior Research Fellow, Asia Programme, Chatham House Following the impeachment of South Korean President Park … [Read More]
Category: Politics (page 2)
Choigate and Park Geun-hye’s censorship of the arts – contd
A couple more links relating to censorship under Park Geun-hye, which will be updated as news breaks. First, a re-post of the pdf purporting to be the blacklist of 9,473 names, first posted here. 10 Jan 2017: Via Br Anthony comes the “appalling news … that [Park] personally gave orders that the two most important … [Read More]
Choigate, censorship and the arts
At any other time the presence of a demonstrator outside the KCC – and outside the opening screening of the London Korean Film Festival – protesting about artistic censorship that is said to have taken place during the current KCC director’s stint at the National Gugak Centre would have been prominent news. But choreographer Jung … [Read More]
Event news: King’s College London Contemporary Korea Speaker Series
The London Asia Pacific Centre will be hosting the Contemporary Korea Speaker Series in October-November 2016. Thanks to funding provided by The Academy of Korean Studies, the series will bring to London four top Korean professors to discuss contemporary Korean economics, politics and society. The talks are as follows: 13 October 2016 – Prof Kim … [Read More]
Event news: Remembering Dictators – The Politics of Bronze Statues in South Korea and Taiwan
Thanks to Colin Bartlett for forwarding me details of a seminar at SOAS’s main building this evening, hosted by their Centre of Taiwan Studies: Remembering Dictators: The Politics of Bronze Statues in South Korea and Taiwan Speaker: Prof Huang Chang-Ling Date: 22 June 2016, 5:00 – 7:00 pm Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings Room: KLT … [Read More]
BIFF controversy inching towards resolution? Probably not
With the news that the Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo has stepped down from the position as figurehead of BIFF, perhaps the controversy over the festival is getting towards some form of resolution. The wonder, as most have pointed out, is how the controversy managed to arise in the first place. Tony Rayns marvels at the … [Read More]
Looking back at 2014: Domestic news
Our final look back at 2014: mainly domestic news stories from South Korea: The Sewol and safety culture The MV Sewol capsized on 16 April, causing the death of 304 passengers. A number of factors contributed to the disaster, including lax safety inspections, unsafe modifications, unsecured cargo, overloading, and an inexperienced crew hired on temporary … [Read More]
Korea’s Economy in Transition – a report from the recent evening at Asia House
Sometimes, when you go along to an evening talk, you are looking forward to the networking rather than the substance of what the speakers will be saying. Perhaps you think you won’t learn much, and you’re going along out of a vague sense of duty, because other people will expect you to be there. Well, … [Read More]
Hong Seong-dam’s art in the news again
In 2012 his unflattering painting of President-elect Park got the ruling party annoyed; now Hong Seong-nam is in the news again for lampooning Park’s response to the Sewol disaster in an exhibition linked to the Gwangju Biennale. It’s difficult to know precisely what has been going on in Gwangju from the snippets that make it … [Read More]
No-one’s in the mood for celebrating
In a brief article two days ago, Variety noted the impact of the Sewol ferry disaster on the Korean box office, on TV schedules, and on pop concerts. No one is in the mood for enjoying themselves right now. Not that such an injunction is needed, but I hear that government officials and diplomatic staff … [Read More]
Looking back at 2013: Domestic news
Our final look back at 2013, including a random collection of news stories, mainly domestic, that caught our attention. In the news Asiana Airlines flight 214 from Incheon crashed on landing at San Francisco airport on 6 July. The Boeing 777 had approached the runway too low and too slow. An American local TV station … [Read More]
MMCA Seoul’s opening show mired in controversy
It’s a shame that the opening of the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art had to be bogged down in controversy. What should have been an interesting show, Zeitgeist Korea, one of the museum’s five concurrent exhibitions, is tainted with nepotism, as 32 out of the 39 artists featured are … [Read More]
Looking back at 2012: Domestic news
In our final round-up of Korea-related stories which caught our eye in 2012, we look at domestic and business news. Modern Life and how to escape it. Korea came 24th out of 34 leading countries in an OECD quality of life index, coming bottom of the class in job security and gender income inequality and … [Read More]
The presidential election: a fascinating race (part 3)
We’ve rounded the last bend and are into the final stretch of this ‘Fascinating Race’. On 19th December, South Korean voters will elect a new president to the Blue House. Here is what has been happening since part 2. Independent no more First came the stepping down of Ahn Cheol-soo. On November 23rd, in an … [Read More]
The presidential election: a fascinating race (part 2)
The fascinating race continues! The latest news from the South Korean presidential election campaign is the potential alliance between the liberal Democratic United Party candidate, Moon Jae-in, and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo. This joining of forces would pose a serious threat to conservative candidate Park Geun-hye, who has led in the polls for some time. … [Read More]
The presidential election: a fascinating race (part 1)
It’s not just the US which is going through a presidential election campaign right now. New guest contributor SK Adams gives his take on the South Korean campaign. If tasked to dream up a thrilling presidential race, one couldn’t do much better than the current race for the Blue House in South Korea. Voters will … [Read More]