Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Austrian nuns to be recommended for Nobel Peace Prize

Sisters Marianne Stoeger, back row right, and Margareta Pissar, back row left, pose with co-workers treating leprosy patients on Soroko Island off the southern Korean coast in this picture taken in 1970 at the Sorokdo National Hospital. / Courtesy of Goheung County OfficeBy Kang Seung-woo A local county office will recommend two Austrian nuns for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their devotion to treating leprosy patients for over 40 years on a remote island off the southern Korean coast.According to the Goheung County on Wednesday, South Jeolla Province, it plans to recommend Sisters Marianne Stoeger and Margareta Pissar for the prestigious prize, among others, in its program to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Sorokdo National Hospital that falls on May 17. Sorok is an island located about 1 kilometer off the mainland.Stoeger and Pissar came to Korea in their late 20s, in 1959 and 1962 respectively, to work as nurses at the state-run leprosy hospital established in 1916 and treat patients suffering from the disease.  Since then, they’ve committe

Jan 20, 2016

Austrian nuns to be recommended for Nobel Peace Prize

Director brings poet's life to big screen

Actor Kang Ha-neul, left, director Lee Joon-ik, center, and actor Park Jung-min stand together during a press conference announcing the completion of the upcoming biographical film “DONGJU: The Portrait of a Poet” at a theater in Dongdaemun, Seoul, Monday. / YonhapBy Baek Byung-yeulLee Joon-ik, director of the hit movie “King and the Clown,” will bring the life of the renowned patriotic poet Yun Dong-ju (1917-1945) to the big screen.At a press conference announcing the completion of “DONGJU: The Portrait of a Poet” on Monday, Lee said that the initial question that arose when deciding to make a biographical film of Yun was “why there has been no film or drama about the life of such a hugely popular poet so far.”“Everyone knows him, but we haven’t had any chance to meet him in a film or drama. That was the beginning of this film,” Lee said at a theater in Dongdaemun, Seoul.Born and raised in northern Manchuria, Yun has been highly recognized in Korea for his politically-resistant poems while the country was under J

Jan 19, 2016

Director brings poet's life to big screen

Korea Times, HUFS to hold essay contest

Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup, right, shakes hands with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) President Kim In-chul after signing a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in English education at the daily’s newsroom in central Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Chung Hyun-chaeThe Korea Times and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) will hold an annual English essay contest for elementary, middle and high school students in November.“Our contest will be different from other essay contests as English professors at HUFS will correct all contestants’ essays and will send evaluation grade reports to each student,” said Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup.The university and the English newspaper company will work together to select topics for the essay contest and English professors at HUFS will evaluate and score the essays.The university’s Foreign Language Examination Center will be in charge of promoting the event.“We will also work on developing learning materials related to the contest,&r

Jan 19, 2016

Scholar's funeral

A funeral procession with a picture of the late Sungkonghoe University professor Shin Young-bok, heads for a crematorium after his funeral service at the school in Seoul, Monday. The scholar, who was famous for his book, “Meditation from Prison,” died of cancer, Friday, at the age of 75. / Yonhap

Jan 18, 2016

Merck Korea CEO stresses 'shared value'

Merck Korea CEO Michael Grund talks about his philosophy of corporate social responsibility activities in Korea and how the firm uses CSR to create common value with its Korean partner companies during a recent meeting in this file photo. / Korea Times fileBy Kim Yoo-chulKorea is home to two technology powerhouses ― Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics ― and the country has long been regarded as the place for next business opportunities by foreign firms especially those who have specialty in industrial materials.As both Samsung and LG identified OLED, which stands for organic light-emitting diode, as their next revenue streams beyond conventional LCD displays, Merck emerged as one of the companies to benefit most by a strategy shift by the Korean tech giants.Given its firm position to manage advanced materials as all of which will be OLED applications ― OLEDs are used in TVs and smartphones; however, they will be used in vehicles and flexible devices because they don’t need to have backlight ― Merck believes Korea is a huge market.But Merck

Jan 18, 2016

Beauty content creators eye China

Multi Channel Network (MCN) Leferi Beauty Entertainment CEO Choi In-seok, left, and managing directorLee Dong-hoo look at a computer monitor in their office, southern Seoul, Wednesday.Courtesy of Leferi Beauty EntertainmentBy Jhoo Dong-chanChoi In-seok, 28, CEO of Multi Channel Network (MCN) Leferi Beauty Entertainment, has expanded its business to China, alongside managing director ― and his friend ― Lee Dong-hoo.MCN Leferi Beauty Entertainment is an agency that has contracts with 70 Youtube content creators in Korea to investigate women’s beauty needs. Like other entertainment management agencies in Korea, the company provides a set of training programs for those who want to be media creators in the beauty field.Leferi offers exclusive contracts with beauty content creators who complete its training program and helps them make their debut on Internet media. The company’s most popular creator Daddoa has also completed the company’s training program and now has more than 400,000 subscribers on Youtube, 250,000 in China. Due to Leferi’s beauty co

Jan 15, 2016

Korea, Japan vie for Vietnam's infrastructure projects

By Choi Sung-jinKorea and Japan are fiercely competing to carve out a larger share of the rapidly enlarging construction market in Vietnam, business sources said Friday. The Vietnamese government plans to build up the country’s poor social infrastructure with airports, railways and subways, and it is estimated to spend more than 30 trillion won ($24.8 billion) doing it. The Japanese builders’ main advantages are abundant funds and accumulated know-how while their Korean competitors’ strengths are their experience of rising from a developing to a developed country and superior information technology, sources said. The central and provincial administrations in the Southeast Asian country are going all out to build roads and expressways, thinking that the lack of social infrastructure is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to brisk economic development, they said. In 2014, motorcycles accounted for 81.4 percent of all means of transport in Ho Chi Minh City, remaining almost unchanged from the 81.8 percent of 2004. Bus transportation and other means

Jan 15, 2016

Startup seeks O2O leadership in food delivery

Lim Eun-seon, CEO of food delivery startup Fly & Company, speaks about the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) delivery platform FoodFly, in an interview at its headquarters in southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Fly & CompanyBy Lee Min-hyungLim Eun-seon, 33, CEO of food delivery startup Fly & Company, sought to start something “on his own” before quitting his consulting career.“A consultant helps other’s business prosper, and there was no chance to take actions for myself,” Lim said in an interview, Wednesday. “That is why I shifted my career into running a startup.”FoodFly, the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platform, is gaining traction here, with more than 1,000 restaurants and cafes forming alliances across Seoul. The company has attracted investments of some 6.5 billion won ($5.36 million) since opening for business in 2012.“The invested capital is used to expand our services across the nation,” he said. “Currently, we are operating in some 12 districts of the natio

Jan 14, 2016

Startup seeks O2O leadership in food delivery

Psy awarded highest honor at CICI Korea 2016

Psy, left, speaks after receiving the Stepping Stone Award at a Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) ceremony at the Coex Hotel InterContinental, southern Seoul, Tuesday. Next to Psy is Choi Jung-hwa, head of CICI./ Korea Times photo by Kim Jae-heunBy Kim Jae-heunThe Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), headed by Prof. Choi Jung-hwa, held its annual award ceremony “CICI Korea 2016” yesterday at the Coex Hotel InterContinental, southern Seoul, to recognize people who contributed to promoting Korea’s culture abroad over the last year.The ceremony invited some 700 international and local opinion leaders, including former Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jong-deok and Na Kyung-won, chairwoman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark W. Lippert gave welcoming remarks on behalf of fifty ambassadors at the event to congratulate the awardees of the day.K-pop idol Psy won the highest honor, the Stepping Stone Award, for promoting the “creativity of hallyu.&rdqu

Jan 12, 2016

Russian sports manager strives for PyeongChang success

Nikolay Belokrinkin, the sports manager in charge of Alpine Skiing for the PyeongChang Olympics organizing committee, is seen in this photo taken during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games./ Courtesy of PyeongChang Olympics organizing committeeBy Nam Hyun-wooNikolay Belokrinkin, 32, is a Russian sports manager in charge of alpine skiing for the 2018 PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) and one of the most ardent supporters working for the success of the upcoming Winter Games.Since March last year, Belokrinkin has been in Pyeongchang and Jeongseon in Gangwon Province ― isolated counties he would probably never have visited if it weren’t for the Olympics ― to provide his knowledge and expertise in holding and operating alpine competitions for Korean officials, who have less experience in holding international-level skiing events.Among the sports managers for the POCOG, Belokrinkin is arguably the busiest, in preparation for the International Ski Federation (FIS) men’s downhill and super-G events which will take place