The Korea Times

Leading K-pop stars get Teen Choice Awards gig

Top K-pop acts ― boy band Super Junior and girl group Girls’ Generation ― will compete with global pop stars for this year’s Teen Choice Awards on the Fox TV network in the United States, SM Entertainment said Tuesday. They will vie with British boy band One Direction and Australian rock band 5 Seconds of Summer in the Choice International Artist Award division of the annual music awards show. American teens aged 13 to 19 will vote to choose the most popular and influential artists in music, film and television. This year’s event will be aired on Aug. 15 from the Galen Center in Los Angeles.Girls’ Generation released single “Party” on July 7 and the song has had more than 12 million views on YouTube.Meanwhile, Super Junior will release a special album titled “Devil” Wednesday.

Jul 14, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Leading K-pop stars get Teen Choice Awards gig

Shows & Dramas

Korean indie band beats idol stars

Korean indie band Hyukoh has bumped some leading idol groups from the top of the music charts. The four-member band beat out K-pop heavyweights Girls’ Generation, Sistar and AOA, who all released albums this month.Hyukoh’s “Wa Li Ga Li” topped seven online music services on Tuesday, including Melon, Mnet, Naver Music, Soribada, Genie, Bugs and Olleh Music. The song is from the group’s EP album, “22.” It has topped the charts nearly two months after its May release.The band is relatively new, having issued its maiden album, “20,” last year. It gained attention after appearing on popular Korean television entertainment show “Infinite Challenge.” After the segment aired on July 4, Hyukoh’s songs began climbing the charts. 

Jul 14, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

South Korea

Professor forced student to eat human waste: police

A 24-year-student is forced to swallow human waste.A Gyeonggi Province university professor, 52, who allegedly forced a student to eat human waste and hit him with a baseball bat, has been arrested.The student, 24, said he put up with the abuse in the hope of getting a job as a university professor.Police said two other students who allegedly took part with the professor were arrested, and one student was booked without detention. The professor was a noted figure in the area of design.Police allege the professor assaulted the student from March 2013 to May this year.In one incident, the professor tied the student’s hands and feet and covered his face with a plastic bag, police said. The professor then allegedly used pepper spray about 40 times on the student. The professor and the students also collected human waste and forced the student to swallow it, police said.At one stage, the student was hospitalized with serious injuries that took about six weeks to heal, police said.

Jul 14, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Professor forced student to eat human waste: police

South Korea

S. Korea repatriates 2 N. Korean fishermen

 South Korea repatriated two out of five rescued North Korean fishermen Tuesday, while the North has demanded Seoul send back all the sailors, including the three who want to defect to the South.South Korea completed its repatriation of the two fishermen, who have expressed their desire to go home, at the truce village of Panmunjom earlier in the day, according to the Unification Ministry.The North has threatened to take "stern" actions if Seoul refuses to send all five fishermen back home who were found drifting on a vessel due to engine failure and rescued by the South's Coast Guard off the east coast on July 4.North Korea's Red Cross said Monday it will send relevant officials, along with the family members of the five fishermen, to the truce village Tuesday to take them all into custody.The North urged the South to reveal the identities of those wishing to defect and to allow their families to meet with them, a move that Seoul has rejected on humanitarian grounds."It is not clear whether the family members of all five sailors appeared at Panmunjom," said a ministry official.

Jul 14, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Shows & Dramas

Tom Cruise to visit Seoul for 'Mission Impossible' sequel

Tom CruiseHollywood star Tom Cruise will visit Korea to promote “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” Lotte Entertainment said Monday.It will be Cruise’s seventh visit to Seoul. He will hold a press conference on July 30 (the day of the film’s release in Korea) and attend a red carpet showing at the second Lotte World Mall Atrium the same evening.Director Christopher McQuarrie and producer Don Granger will accompany Cruise..  

Jul 13, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Tom Cruise to visit Seoul for 'Mission Impossible' sequel

Companies

Hana-Korea Exchange merger to be completed before Oct.

Major banking group Hana Financial Group Inc. said Monday that it plans to complete a merger between its two banking units -- Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) -- before October as KEB's labor union has agreed on the proposed merger.Hana Financial has been pushing for the merger since its acquisition of KEB from U.S. buyout fund Loan Star in 2012 but faced strong opposition from the KEB union, which claims Hana had promised to allow an independent management for five years.In February, a Seoul court issued an injunction banning Hana Financial from engaging in any merger processes, citing its earlier promise with KEB's union.But an appellate court ruled in favor of Hana Financial last month, dismissing the earlier court's injunction, to pave the way for the company to resume the talks with the labor union."(We) reached an agreement on the principle of the integration, name of the united bank, the procedure and synergy sharing of the integration, and guarantee of job security," Hana Financial said in a filing."We also decided to implement the agreement with sincerity based on the

Jul 13, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Opinion

Partnership with Heikendorf of Germany

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroMore than 30 years ago, a visiting lecturer from Germany at the Mwika Bible School so loved Mwika that she had her home community of Heikendorf enter into a partnership with the then parish of Mrimbo in Mwika. Since, that parish has grown into four independent parishes of Uuwo, Kondiki, Maring’a and Kirimeni. The partnership continues with these four parishes. The four often attach “Mrimbo” after their parish names as if to identify their common parentage, and they maintain their sibling like closeness to each other.A pattern of return visitations has evolved between Mrimbo and Heikendorf. One year a group from Heikendorf comes to Tanzania to revel in African safari adventures and/or to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and to visit Mrimbo in Mwika. The following year, a group from Mrimbo is invited to Heikendorf. Over the years, numerous family friendships have blossomed and deepened between these two communities. In September this year, a larger group from Mrimbo, including youth, will visit Heikendorf at its invitation to celebrate the 30th anniversa

Jun 23, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Editorial

ed Bribery probe fizzles out

The prosecution’s investigation into the bribery scandal prompted by the so-called “Sung Woan-jong list” is about to wind down, more quietly than expected, as the nation is wrapped up in the fight against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.Rep. Hong Moon-jong of the Saenuri Party was the third person summoned by the prosecution over allegations that he received 200 million won before the 2012 presidential election from the late Keangnam Enterprises Chairman Sung. The legislator has denied the allegations, and the word is that he is not expected to be indicted nor the five others named by Sung in his suicide memo in April.While the prosecution has decided to indict without physical detention former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo and South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo in the scandal, the investigation into Rep. Hong was under enhanced scrutiny because Hong’s case revolved around President Park Geun-hye’s 2012 election campaign.The prosecution in Korea has largely been vulnerable to incumbent powers. But the prosecution had vowed to leave no stone u

Jun 11, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Opinion

What is true expatriate?

The word “expatriate” has many meanings and interpretations. One literal interpretation of the word and concept is from the Latin. “Ex” could mean former, as in “ex-con”; it can also mean outside of or deriving from. What it does not mean is “anti” or anything negative, though many interpret that as the meaning. This leads to great misunderstandings, at home and abroad.What further complicates understanding this concept are the many different reasons for being an expatriate in today’s world. What motivates someone to leave home and live in another country? Let’s look at some of the classic reasons, good and bad.There are many who marry a person from another country. From personal experience, it changes one’s perspectives. For one, we tend to idealize the country of our loved one. Love the person; it follows to love their country and culture.Many come as students and love the experience and want to stay and become employed. Many are teachers of English. They could go anywhere, China, Taiwan, developing countries. They c

Jun 10, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Opinion

Standing up to Russian aggression

By Gwynne DyerJust before he sat down to a traditional Bavarian meal of sausages and beer with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of the G7 summit Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama told the media that one of the meeting’s priorities would be discussing ways of “standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine.” Which begs the question: What kind of aggression are we talking about here?There are unquestionably Russian troops in the rebel provinces of eastern Ukraine, and that is certainly an act of aggression under international law. (The Russian troops there are definitely not just volunteers lending the rebels a hand while they are on leave, as Moscow maintains. How can we be sure? Soldiers on leave do not take their tanks and artillery with them.)But is this a prelude to a Russian invasion that would take over all of Ukraine, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently alleged? If it is, it would require a whole different level of response, and the result could easily be a new Cold War.Is it also the first step in a Russian campaign to take back every

Jun 9, 2015By Kim Ji-soo

Kim Ji-soo

Read more

Leading K-pop stars get Teen Choice Awards gig

Korean indie band beats idol stars

Professor forced student to eat human waste: police

S. Korea repatriates 2 N. Korean fishermen

Tom Cruise to visit Seoul for 'Mission Impossible' sequel

Hana-Korea Exchange merger to be completed before Oct.

Partnership with Heikendorf of Germany

ed Bribery probe fizzles out

What is true expatriate?

Standing up to Russian aggression

Top 5 stories