London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Korean movies at LEAFF 2023 (updated)

This year, LEAFF presents a special Retrospective strand dedicated to the works of Director Chung Ji-Young (1946-), known to be the Ken Loach of South Korea. The cinema veteran is known for compelling storytelling based on real-life cases. 2023 marks the 40th anniversary since his directorial debut. In order to celebrate, LEAFF brings 8 of … [Read More]

Exhibition Visit: Earth Alert – Environmental protest goes mainstream

Over the past few years, environmentalists have been protesting about the massive land reclamation project at Saemangeum on the west coast of Korea. As well as being an environmental tragedy, it has also been a minor irritation in UK-ROK relations: prominent among the campaigners have been British naturalists protesting about the scheme’s impact on the … [Read More]

Why is the British media so “negative”?

A recent article in the Chosun Ilbo, Why is the British Media Most Critical of Korean Markets? (3 March) asked why  British news organisations are so negative: Following the global financial crisis last year, most of the foreign media reports that shook the Korean economy were from British news organizations. Seven out of 10 foreign … [Read More]

The London Korean Links Awards 2007

Following the success of last year’s equivalent post here are the winners and losers of the second annual LKL Awards. Again, a personal and unscientific selection. Man of the Year Last year there was a clear winner: a man who had been in the press all year with little but positive coverage. This year started … [Read More]

Saemangeum update

Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies Group have just completed part of their monitoring programme of migrating birds at Saemangeum. A key conclusion: many Great Knot have been displaced by the Saemangeum reclamation, and have subsequently failed to stage through the remainder of the spring at either Gomso Bay or the Geum Estuary — … [Read More]

British birdman fights for Korean environment

A recent article in the Hankyoreh, forwarded by Tom Coyner, highlighted another Korean environmental issue which I hadn’t come across before: the destruction of an important mudflat area at Saemangeum on the Byeonsan peninsula on the West of Korea in order to build – well, they’re not quite sure what. But reclaiming 99,000 acres of … [Read More]