London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Alcohol advert ban for young celebrities?

The BBC picked up on a story in the Chosun Ilbo that celebs under 25 could be banned from leading teenagers astray by advertising booze. A bill proposing the clamp-down was passed by the National Assembly’s committee on health and welfare on 23 April. Reportedly prompted by Kim Yu-na’s Hite advertisements in 2012 (when she … [Read More]

Looking back at 2014: Culture, sport and tourism

In the first of four articles looking back over 2014, we recall some of the culture, sports and heritage stories that made the news. Arts Dansaekhwa emerged as flavour of the year. Following the MMCA exhibition in 2013 and Joan Kee’s book, Kukje Gallery had a monochrome retrospective, and dansaekhwa artists were included in MMCA … [Read More]

Yuna is still Queen

Regardless of the controversy, Kim Yuna bowed out with dignity: “The judges give points and I can’t do anything about that,” she is reported as saying. “I did all I wanted to do, like I wanted to do it. … I’m just glad it’s over.” A few relevant links: The Change.org petition: Open Transparent Scores … [Read More]

Kim Yu-na wins again

Congratulations to Kim Yu-na on regaining her world figure-skating championship title in effortless style. Sadly, her next big contest, at the Sochi Winter Olympics, will be her last. “The reigning Olympic champion looked as if she’d never been away, with an exquisite and elegant performance that left the audience spellbound. The crowd was on its … [Read More]

LKL 2012 Quiz of the Year — the answers

The answers to LKL’s 2012 Quiz of the Year. How many did you get? 1 The Watermelon Economy It was Lee Seung-han, the boss of Tesco in Korea, who accused Lee Myung-bak of running a watermelon economy: on the outside, lots of rhetoric about “green” growth, but actually red on the inside. “Not even communist … [Read More]

Pyeongchang wins the 2018 Winter Olympics

On Radio 4 this morning an Ex British Olympic chief tipped Pyeongchang to win the 2018 winter olympics by 10 votes today. # Congratulations to the bid team. BBC Sport – Pyeongchang will host the 2018 Winter Olympics http://bbc.in/nDPICE # Inevitably, a lot of the attention became focussed on Kim Yu-na, “Kim Yu-na’s Pyeongchang fashion” … [Read More]

The London Korean Links Awards 2010

LKL’s fifth unscientific selection of people and events who have made 2010. Personality of the Year No question about this: Kim Yu-na. Olympic champion, 5th-highest earning female sportsperson globally, ambassador for everything from the G20 to the Catholic Church. I’m sure if she ran for president she’d get elected. Albums of the Year Four LKL … [Read More]

Kim Yu-na: Queen of the Ice!

Aashish Gadhvi reviews the figure skating juggernaut that is Kim Yu-na At the recent South Korea v Ivory Coast match I managed to speak to many Korean journalists from television and from print media. Many of the journalists there only seem to have one thing to talk about. No, it wasn’t Park Ji-sung or Lee … [Read More]

Kim Yu-na’s record-breaking gold

Congratulations to Kim Yu-na on record-breaking gold at Vancouver 2010. According to the BBC: It will go down as one of the greatest performances in figure skating history, and is South Korea’s first medal at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than speed skating. A couple of days ago the Chosun Ilbo was trying … [Read More]

The top 30 LKL pictures of 2007

Part 1: #21-30 Inspired by the cheap TV programmes which seem to have taken over the evening schedules in the UK, simply recycling clips from other TV programmes (The 100 most embarrassing celebrity moments, and the like), here’s a chance to sample again the pictures most viewed on this site during 2007, according to AWstats. … [Read More]