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Kim Se-jeong

Korea Times K-Culture Reporter

I am covering trend, food and fashion. Previously, I covered diplomacy, city, environment and unification.

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Travel & Food

Inter-Burgo Ansan aims to help revitalize city

Hotel Inter-Burgo Ansan has 203 rooms. Above is the Royal Suite. / Courtesy of Hotel Inter-Burgo AnsanBy Kim Se-jeongA brand-new hotel may seem out of place in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.The industrial city, located south of Seoul, is home to working class families and more than 10,000 small- and medium-sized companies.The city was also recently devastated by the Sewol ferry disaster in April, in which almost 300 students from the local high school lost their lives in a capsizing passenger ferry.Nevertheless, Hotel Inter-Burgo Ansan opened last week, and made a commitment to help revitalize the city.“We have realities that are not so favorable at the moment, but we are working to become a landmark in the local community,” Yoon June-shik from Hotel Inter-Burgo said. He refused to disclose his title.A computer rendering of the hotel’s exteriorHis optimism comes from a number of factors.One is government support. The hotel’s opening is a part of a government-driven project that aims to attract young job seekers to the industrial complex.To that end, the central gov

Dec 18, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
Inter-Burgo Ansan aims to help revitalize city
South Korea

Native speakers may be barred from English-only kindergartens

 By Kim Se-jeong The Ministry of Education is considering banning 292 English-only kindergartens from hiring native speakers as teachers in an effort to curb household spending on private English education.At these kindergartens, children, mostly five or younger, must speak English only, which makes these institutes popular among parents. The institutes charge 793,000 won ($724) a month on average, almost double the cost of other kindergartens, but waiting lists are still long.The measure is part of the government’s broader efforts to help households reduce spending on private education and to get public education back on track, ministry officials said.In addition, the ministry said it was planning to make the English and Math sections of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) easier.“Spending on private education has been a measurement for one’s social status,” a ministry official said. “That is hot helping social integration. We hope this plan will be helpful in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor.”He said the ministry w

Dec 17, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
South Korea

President's brother will be questioned

By Kim Se-jeong Park Ji-man, President Park Geun-hye’s youngest brother, was asked to appear for questioning as early as Monday as a witness in the “memogate” scandal, prosecutors said Sunday.The brother, 56, chairman of electronics materials firm EG, is facing allegations that he was in a power struggle with President Park’s former confidant Jeong Yun-hoe. Apparently being on the losing side, he became involved in the leaking of documents from Cheong Wa Dae, touching off the ongoing scandal.Former presidential aide Cho Eung-chon, who took sides with the younger Park, underwent questioning over allegations that he played a role in the document leaks.On Saturday, one of the three policemen who were questioned by prosecutors over the incident committed suicide, leaving behind a note saying that he had nothing to do with the leak.The Segye Ilbo broke the story on Nov. 28 that the documents were internal reports regarding Jeong influencing state affairs through regular meetings with eight secretaries.Jeong married a daughter of the late Choi Tae-min, an advis

Dec 14, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
President's brother will be questioned
South Korea

Criticism mounts on Korean Air

By Kim Se-jeongHeather ChoKorean Air is coming under mounting fire for issuing a statement that contradicted explanations of a first-class passenger and the chief flight attendant about the “nut rage” case involving Heather Cho.Speaking to journalists outside the prosecutors’ office in Seoul, the passenger, surnamed Park, said, “Before Cho removed the chief flight attendant from the plane, she yelled and hit Park’s shoulder with her hand.” The passenger went on to say, “The chief flight attendant was pushed back for almost three meters as a result. And Cho smashed a folded file she had on the wall behind the flight attendant. The flight attendant looked absolutely frightened.”On Friday, Cho, the former vice president of Korean Air’s in-flight service and the daughter of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho, denied that she had used force during her “nut rage.” She was questioned by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation that day. The allegation of physical abuse was raised by the chief flight attendant Park

Dec 14, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
Criticism mounts on Korean Air
South Korea

Teenager faces arrest for attack on forum

A pot and a bottle of sulfuric acid, confiscated by police after a teenager tried to attack participants of a public forum with them, are displayed with the suspect’s other belongings at Iksan Police Station in South Jeolla Province, Thursday. / YonhapBy Kim Se-jeong Police sought an arrest warrant Thursday for a teenager after he reportedly threw a pot containing burning gasoline in a cathedral located in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, where a public forum about issues in North Korea was being held.The two women targeted were Shin Eun-mi, 54, a Korean-American music professor, and Hwang Seon, 41, a former deputy speaker of the now-defunct Democratic Labor Party.Both are regarded by conservative groups as sympathetic toward North Korea.According to police, the 18-year-old high school student, surnamed Oh, walked into the venue carrying the pot and a small bottle of sulfuric acid. When obstructed by people, he threw the burning pot toward the stage.Two people were injured and more than 200 people attending the show were evacuated, according to police.Oh’s high school t

Dec 11, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
South Korea

Singaporean PM becomes Seoul's honorary citizen

By Kim Se-jeongLee Hsien LoongPrime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong received an honorary citizenship from Seoul Thursday, becoming the 13th head of the state to be awarded the designation.The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) said Lee met with Mayor Park Won-soon at City Hall for a short morning ceremony. Lee’s wife accompanied him, along with his political aides and his top envoy to Korea, Peter Tan.Lee was visiting Korea to take part in the Korea-ASEAN summit in Busan. ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations which has 10 member states. Lee has been in office since 2004. Following the ceremony, Lee visited the Seoul Transport Operation and Information Service, the top control tower for the city’s traffic, according to the city.The honorary citizenship was established in 1958. So far, 714 individuals from 92 countries have been awarded the honorary citizenship. Former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda received it in 2012, and Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 2006.According to the city, the honorary citizenship is given to foreign d

Dec 11, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
Singaporean PM becomes Seoul's honorary citizen
Companies

Korean Air scion faces probe for bad in-flight behavior

By Kim Se-jeongHeather ChoThe transportation authority said Monday it is looking into whether a Korean Air senior vice president’s behavior on a plane, including yelling at flight attendants and ordering the plane to stop, violated the Aviation Safety and Security Act.The investigation comes after Heather Cho, the airline’s senior vice president and the airline group Chairman Cho Yang-ho’s eldest daughter, allegedly had an aircraft on the runway proceed back to the gate at JFK International Airport in New York to have a flight attendant thrown off due to “poor service.”“Two inspectors are at  Korean Air, talking with people. We’ll see whether her behavior was against the law. It is an unprecedented case, so we need to see the related regulations,” a ministry official said on Monday.The official said her actions were inappropriate, although it was meant to improve the quality of attendants’ service.“Even though she is senior vice president at the company, she was a passenger at that time, so she

Dec 8, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
Korean Air scion faces probe for bad in-flight behavior
South Korea

Ex-aide quizzed in memogate

By Kim Se-jeongCho Eung-chonA former presidential aide was grilled by prosecutors Friday as part of an escalating investigation into the “memogate” scandal that has brought to light an intense power struggle between confidants of President Park Geun-hye.Entering the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office, Cho Eung-chon, former presidential secretary for civil service discipline, told reporters, “I have not done anything which I should feel ashamed of. I will tell the truth.”Cho allegedly ordered Police Superintendent Park Gwan-cheon to write a controversial monitoring report about Park’s former confidant Jeong Yun-hoe and 10 other presidential aides who were reportedly in discord with the President’s brother, Park Ji-man. Cho reportedly had a close relationship with the brother.The report is believed to have been written on Jan. 6, and was reported by a local daily, the Segye Ilbo, last week prompting intense mudslinging between those involved.The prosecution said it would focus on confirming Park’s role in drafting the report — wheth

Dec 5, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
Ex-aide quizzed in memogate
People & Events

Lee speaks for angry smokers

Lee Yeon-ik manager of www.ilovesmoking.co.kr.By Kim Se-jeong Lee yeon-ik, 45, manages www.ilovesmoking.co.kr, an online community for smokers, and speaks for 96,000 people angry about the recently announced cigarette price hike.On Sept. 2, the government announced it would increase the price of a pack of cigarette by 2,000 won, which parliament approved on Tuesday. From Jan. 1, the cheapest cigarette pack will cost 4,500 won.“The government did not care about smokers’ opinions ― we are not a small number of people,” Lee said. An estimated 10 million Koreans are smokers.On Tuesday, enraged smokers took to the website.Asked if 2,000 won was too much of an increase, Lee said it was concerning, but that was not the main point upsetting him and other smokers.“The government is not being honest,” he said. “If the goal was to prevent people smoking, the government should have proposed a higher increase. “We feel the government is simply raising taxes at the expense of smokers. And you know what? Most smokers are lower-middle-cla

Dec 5, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
Lee speaks for angry smokers
South Korea

Bill proposed to protect undocumented children

By Kim Se-jeong An opposition party lawmaker has proposed a bill to provide free education and medical services to almost 20,000 undocumented children.  Rep. Jung Cheong-rae of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy proposed a revision to the Child Welfare Act on Nov. 18 to grant undocumented children access to basic free education and medical services equal to what’s available to other children.Education is free until middle school. When it comes to medical care, those who live in extreme poverty and North Korean defectors are eligible for free medical treatment.“The existing protection measures for the undocumented children are mostly temporary. We need a more holistic and sustainable approach to protect them,” Jung said in a statement.In addition to free education and medical treatment, Jung proposed these children be given the rights to use government facilities for teenagers and receive adaptation training sessions offered by state agencies. None of these benefits are currently available to them.Activists for children’s rig

Dec 1, 2014By Kim Se-jeong
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