The Korea Times

Kubota, Paik Nam-june's widow passes away

Shigeko Kubota, wife of the late renowned video artist Paik Nam-june passed away at a hospital in New York last Thursday, the Nam June Paik (NJP) Art Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province said Sunday.Kubota had been battling cancer. She was 78.She studied sculpture at the Tokyo University of Education and was also a video artist and a member of the avante-garde Fluxus movement in the 1960s. She first met Paik in 1963, and the two married in 1977.Paik was the first to integrate media and art, and used TV sets, cabinets and signals to express his ideas. He was also a composer and performance artist.Kubota gave up her artistic pursuits to take care of Paik after he had a stroke in1996. 

Jul 26, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Kubota, Paik Nam-june's widow passes away

South Korea

Branding expert comes to party with 'diss' campaign

Branding expert Sohn Hye-won, who now works for the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), has launched a so-called “self-diss” campaign in an attempt to broaden the NPAD’s appeal to voters.On Thursday she showed how she adopted the strategy for party chairman Moon Jae-in, which shows him apologizing for “lacking in strong charisma.” The former presidential secretary in the late President Roh Moo-hyun’s Cheong Wa Dae starts out with the apology and explains his life and career as a human rights lawyer-turned-politician.Sohn also depicts veteran NPAD lawmaker Rep. Park Jie-won apologizing for stressing “Honam, Honam.” The southwestern region is the electoral support base underpinning the NPAD.“We hope to obtain the voters’ hearts through self-repentance first, and by forgoing a lot of the vested interests,” said Sohn.The NPAD has recruited Sohn, responsible for many names of Korean products, including soju “Cheoeum Cheoreom (Like the First Time),” and apartments, including Hillstate, to

Jul 23, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Branding expert comes to party with 'diss' campaign

South Korea

Drunken women who blackout more prone to suicidal thoughts

Women who blackout after drinking alcohol, even if only once, are at greater risk of having suicidal thoughts, according to a report.Park Eun-cheol, a professor of preventive medicine at the Yonsei University’s Medical School, and his team surveyed 42,347 Korean adults from 2007 to 2011. Their findings were released July 19.The team used the “odds ratio,” or OR _ which considers drinking frequency, intake and the times the individual blacked out _ to measure the danger of having suicidal thoughts. It found that women who blacked out at least once are 1.63 times more likely to think about suicide. That rose to 2.16 times for women who blacked out every week. The survey also found no correlation between drinking, blackout and suicidal thoughts for men.“If people know about such dangers of suicidal thoughts beforehand, they can take certain measures to prevent it, especially those who tend to excessively drink often,” Professor Park said.This survey was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Jul 23, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Drunken women who blackout more prone to suicidal thoughts

Shows & Dramas

한고은, 4살 연하 회사원과 8월 결혼

배우 한고은(40)이 4살 연하 회사원과 다음 달 결혼식을 올린다.    한고은 소속사 지앤지프로덕션은 23일 "한고은이 8월 30일 사랑하는 사람과 백년가약을 맺는다"라면서 "예비 신랑은 4세 연하 회사원으로 자상하고 건실한 청년"이라고 밝혔다.    소속사는 "둘은 지인 소개로 만나 연인으로 발전했다"라면서 "교제 기간이 길지 않지만, 예비신랑의 따뜻하고 한결같은 모습에 결혼을 약속했다"라고 설명했다.    결혼식은 예비신랑과 양가 친지들을 배려해 친인척만을 초청해 비공개로 진행될 예정이다.   (연합뉴스) 

Jul 23, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

South Korea

Hyundai, Kia to sponsor PyeongChang Winter Olympics

South Korea's two largest automakers signed on as sponsors for its first Winter Olympic Games on Thursday.The organizing committee for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics said Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. will provide some 4,100 official vehicles and cash to help run the multisport competition.The signing ceremony took place in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul.As a 'Tier One' partner, Hyundai-Kia will enjoy a wide range of marketing rights, including the use of intellectual property and the use of PyeongChang's logo in their advertising campaigns.Hyundai Motor Group, which holds the two carmakers under its wing, was an official partner of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. More recently, it was a sponsor for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade, both sporting events held in South Korea. (Yonhap)

Jul 23, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Shows & Dramas

Actress Jun Ji-hyun is pregnant

Actress Jun Ji-hyunTop hallyu actress Jun Ji-hyun, 34, of the television drama “My Love from the Star” is pregnant, reports said Wednesday.The star currently promoting her new film “Assassination” is 10 weeks into her pregnancy. It is her first pregnancy since she married her husband Choi Joon-hyuk three years ago. Her due date is around early next year.The actress whose hit films include “My Sassy Girl” (2008) and “The Thieves” (2012) regained her top star status with the wildly popular television drama “My Love.”

Jul 22, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

South Korea

Instant cold noodles laced with sodium

The sodium content of instant “naengmyeon,” or cold noodle, packages sold at supermarkets far exceeds the daily recommended intake, it was reported Wednesday.According to the food industry, the amount of sodium in 12 one-person packages of cold noodle products made by Pulmuone and Ottogi ranged from 48 percent to about 109 percent of the daily 2,000 milligrams recommended by the World Health Organization.Also, the water-based cold noodle products had more sodium than the mixed spicy ones.Excessive sodium can lead to high blood pressure, and heart and kidney diseases, the report said.

Jul 22, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Fast food breakfast meals high in sodium and fat

Shows & Dramas

Hyukoh joins YG label

Band HyukohHyukoh, an underground band that achieved sudden popularity, has signed with YG Entertainment’s music label.The four-member band signed with HIGH GROUND, a music label within YG Entertainment that is led by Tablo of the hip-hop group Epik High. The band was catapulted to fame after appearing on a popular television entertainment program “Infinite Challenge.” Since then, it has swept the top of the domestic music charts.It also performed along with Tablo and his fellow judge on the music program “Show Me the Money 4.” 

Jul 22, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

South Korea

President urges action on reform

President Park Geun-hye stressed at a Tuesday Cabinet meeting the urgency of carrying out a range of reforms.“All Cabinet members under the leadership of the prime minister should focus on implementing reforms with a pledge to lay out the next three decades of growth and also fight corruption,” she said.The President said public support was crucial to the success of the reforms.  She said the public needed to know why reform was so important and how it would affect their lives so they could join the process.Park has pledged to reform the labor, finance and education markets during her five-year tenure, but a series of domestic crises, including the recent Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, has hampered progress.The President also warned against “individual” actions by Cabinet members. Despite Park’s previous warnings, Cabinet members such as Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea are rumored to be quitting their posts to run in the 2016 general elections. 

Jul 21, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Shows & Dramas

EXO fans treated to Chinese version of 'Love Me Right'

 K-pop group EXO performs at its second solo concert in Beijing over the weekend. / Courtesy of EXOdicted  Screaming fans waving silver glow sticks and signs emblazoned with “EXO-L,” the name of Korean boy band EXO’s fan club, filled the MasterCard Center in Beijing over the weekend for the band’s second solo concert tour, EXO Planet #2 The EXO’luXion. The group began the concert with their 2014 hit “Overdose,” following it up with “MAMA,” “Wolf,” and “Call Me Baby.” They eventually surprised fans with a Mandarin version of “Love Me Right.” According to SM Entertainment, EXO performed 28 songs in the three-hour concert. “The group drew explosive responses from their fans with powerful music and a stylish performance,” a SM representative said Monday. The next stop in EXO’s world tour is Chengdu, China in August. 

Jul 21, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Kim Ji-soo

Read more

Kubota, Paik Nam-june's widow passes away

Branding expert comes to party with 'diss' campaign

Drunken women who blackout more prone to suicidal thoughts

한고은, 4살 연하 회사원과 8월 결혼

Hyundai, Kia to sponsor PyeongChang Winter Olympics

Actress Jun Ji-hyun is pregnant

Instant cold noodles laced with sodium

Hyukoh joins YG label

President urges action on reform

EXO fans treated to Chinese version of 'Love Me Right'

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