The Korea Times

Tanzanians learning about Korean gov't

Rheem Chae-ho, center in front row, president of Local Government Officials Development Institute (LOGODI), poses with Tanzanian delegates at the LOGODI headquarters in Sunwon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday./ Courtesy of LOGODIBy Shim Jae-yunA group of Tanzanian officials is visiting Korea to learn about the nation’s local administration management system and its development over the past few decades.The 15 delegates are attending a three-week program that started May 26, provided by the Local Government Officials Development Institute (LOGODI) under the wing of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration.LOGODI mapped out the program with a focus on the Saemaul Movement and rural development, in consideration of the local situation in Tanzania.The participants will attend lectures such as “Korean Economic Development at a Glance,” “Agricultural Development in Korea,” “Korea’s Saemaul Undong” and “Korean Regional Development.”They also plan to visit Incheon International Airport Customs, Saha District Government in Busan

May 30, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

South Korea

Agency helps export 'administrative hallyu'

Charles Okello, second from left on front row, chief Administrative Officer of Soroti District of Uganda, poses with another Ugandan delegation and Sung Keuk-je, center, a professor at Kyung Hee University after a class on capacity building in local administrations at the university, in Seoul, Tuesday.                                                                                                             / Courtesy of LGODIBy Shim Jae-yunAdding to the conventional concept of hallyu (the Korean wave) like K-pop and K-drama, a government agency is promoting the so-called “administrative hallyu” to help less developed countries learn the advanced administrative system of Korea.Toward that end, 17 high ranking officials from Ugandan provincial governments are visiting here at the invitation of the Loca

Apr 23, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

South Korea

Saemaul Movement to be exported

By Shim Jae-yunPark Chung-heeThe late former PresidentThe new government will seek to globalize the Saemaul Movement or the new village movement which was designed to improve the livelihood of rural areas in the 1970s under the late President Park Chung-hee, the father of the incoming President Park Geun-hye.Ruling Saenuri Party floor leader Lee Han-koo revealed Thursday the effort will be made with the support of the World Bank.Saemaul Movement is a pan-national drive for the development of rural areas which started from 1970 by then President Park Chung-hee.Park initiated the campaign in a bid to modernize the underdeveloped provincial areas through construction of houses, roads and other infrastructure facilities. It also expanded to cover efforts to increase income of farmers and fishermen.With strong support from the government, the movement was also carried out in urban areas affecting companies and other work places, to grow as a campaign for enlightenment of the people based on the motto of diligence, self-reliance and cooperation.The movement turned into a political campaign

Feb 21, 2013By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Mr. Noda, try and visit Dokdo, if you can

By Shim Jae-yun Japan has taken issue with President Lee Myung-bak’s recent visit to Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets. Tokyo is trying to make Lee’s visit look as if it were a violation of its territory, threatening to take the matter to the International Court of Justice. Pity! Our neighbor apparently doesn’t have any sense of reality. The President may visit it as part of his duty as head of state to take trips to parts of the nation and see if there is anything he can do to improve the people’s livelihood, while confirming the country’s territorial integrity. In other words, he exercised his right at the same time as fulfilling his duty. If Japan claims that Dokdo is theirs, the burden of proof is on them. We dare King Akihito or Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to visit the Korean islets. If they set foot on Dokdo without Seoul’s permission, it would subject them to a search and subsequent punishment under Korean law for the crime of entering Korea illegally. If they are caught by the Korean police garrison stationed there, they may be treated as spie

Aug 15, 2012By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Go, Jasmine!

By Shim Jae-yun Jasmine Lee, the first lawmaker with an ethnic background, captures a new Korea in the making _ a society that is changing from homogenous into multicultural. If Korea passes the Jasmine test, it would mean the nation is well on its way to a diverse, vibrant Korea, where differences between people act as a catalyst rather than obstacle. When talking to the ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker during an interview Friday, she first looked assuring and then sounded reassuring that we are heading in the right direction. Her presence in the National Assembly is after all as much the outcome of her personal endeavor as the unmistakable evolution of Korea’s globalization track. It was her broad smile that disarmed the interlocutor. Then, it was her story about her son that indicated her smile was not a sign of weakness but proof of strength. When he was a little schoolboy, his classmates called him a monkey, obviously referring to his preference for bananas, she said. Her son’s response was “Yes, we are monkeys: So what?” Reflecting her son’s spirit and a

Jun 8, 2012By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Total defeat on Dokdo

By Shim Jae-yun Tension is lingering between Korea and Japan over the issue of the Dokdo islets. The Japanese government came up with an annual defense white paper claiming sovereignty over the islets in the East Sea Tuesday. A day earlier, three Japanese lawmakers were sent home without being able to fulfill their ambition of visiting Ulleung Island, the closest location to the islets. The politicians’ acts were provocative and cunningly premeditated. They seem well aware of the weak points of Korea and its people and how they will respond to their politically-motivated showdown. They were desperate to muster support from conservative forces in Japan. Dokdo is the very place that harbors the tragic legacy of Japan’s cruel colonialism and imperialism over the Korean Peninsula. In any sense, it is natural to vent anger and feel severe pain when the past aggressors again try to rub salt in the wound. The Japanese lawmakers included descendants of Class-A war criminals who played a major role in killing countless people in Korea and neighboring Asian nations during W

Aug 3, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Opinion

Happening on highway

By Shim Jae-yun This column is the second version of my previous one for The Korea Times’ April 21 edition with the title of ``Near death experience.” I first thought about “My near death experience” for the title but decided to change it to the above one as readers, Koreans in particular, as I pointed out in the April column, have a sort of negative feeling over the word death. As you might guess, the incident took place on a highway, specifically the 149 kilometer point of the Gyeongbu Expressway bound for Seoul, near Chilgok Interchange, 17 kilometers away from Daegu City. I was returning to Seoul by car at around noon on July 1 after interviewing a ranking official of the IAAF Daegu 2011 Championships the day before. It was a sizzling, humid day. The car, aged 12 years, began to slow and stopped just before the tollgate for the highway. With emergency lights flashing and after a lull I started it again to join the expressway, harboring anxiety over the possibility of the car’s stalling in the middle of the road. In hindsight, I should not have got on the highway an

Jul 13, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Sports

Daegu bracing for IAAF World Championships

By Shim Jae-yun DAEGU – Fresh from the enthrallment of PyeongChang’s winning the right to host the 2018 Winter Games, the nation will again be full of excitement with another major global sporting event opening in 50 days. Ahead of the IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011, the city, some 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was buzzing with anticipation. The organizing committee officials for the Daegu World Championships were busy, apparently determined to make the global sport gala an undoubted success. The athletes meet is all the more significant as having won its Winter Olympic bid it completes Korea’s sporting-event grand slam, having hosted the 1988 Seoul Olympics and 2002 World Cup, a feat only managed by only six other nations. Moon Dong-hoo, vice president and secretary general of the organizing committee, has pursued this mission throughout his 25-year career, since he was in charge of the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and 1988 Seoul Olympics. He also served as secretary general on the organizing committee for the 2002 World Cup and the World Taekwondo Federation

Jul 7, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Shows & Dramas

tbs seeks to become flagship English station

Broadcaster marks 21st anniversary By Shim Jae-yun “Like a helping hand unraveling tangled thread, (we provide) wisdom and information to distribute and link.” These are the lyrics of a trademark jingle for Traffic Broadcasting System (tbs) around the time it was launched 21 years ago. As the song expresses, the broadcasting company was meant to disperse traffic updates while offering information on the daily lives of Seoul citizens. It has continued to grow to become an essential source for drivers to turn on 95.1 FM to acquire prompt and precise information on traffic conditions and the weather or to just enjoy good music and entertainment. In many senses, tbs is essential in a nation notorious for traffic congestion coupled with prevalent rude driving habits to the extent of intimidating novice drivers. CEO of tbs, Lee Joon-ho, said the station will continue to work hard as a unique broadcasting system that is jointly created like a mosaic, fusing together five channels to provide a genuine broadcast. “We pursue a broadcasting system that citizens of Seoul

Jun 10, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Arts & Theater

Forum aims to transform mining area into cultural hub

By Shim Jae-yun The Yeongwol Yonsei Forum is a historic collaborative event between the citizens of Yeongwol in Gangwon Province and Yonsei University. Yeongwol’s ambition is to transform itself into an innovative “Museum City,” and Yonsei aims to support their efforts academically by helping to organize the international forum featuring leading scholars from Korea and abroad. “For most of the 20th century, Yeongwol was well known for its coal industry, but as the major coal mines in the area gradually started to close, residents began looking for a new way to support themselves’” said Mayor Park Sun-kyu of the Yeongwol County and co-chair of the Yeongwol Yonsei Forum Organizing Committee. Following numerous outside consultations and much internal discussion from the late 20th century to early 21st century, the people of Yeongwol decided to lay their future in making Yeongwol a “Museum City,” Park explained in an interview with The Korea Times. The inaugural Yeongwol Yonsei Forum is meant to help the county realize its dreams by gathering leading international and domes

May 22, 2011By Shim Jae-yun

Shim Jae-yun

Read more

Tanzanians learning about Korean gov't

Agency helps export 'administrative hallyu'

Saemaul Movement to be exported

Mr. Noda, try and visit Dokdo, if you can

Go, Jasmine!

Total defeat on Dokdo

Happening on highway

Daegu bracing for IAAF World Championships

tbs seeks to become flagship English station

Forum aims to transform mining area into cultural hub

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