People & Events

Myongji Hospital sent medical team to Nepal

Lee Wang-jun, third from left, chairman of the Myongji Medical Foundation, poses with Myongji Hospital’s medical assistant team headed by KimIn-byung, second from left, director of the hospital’s emergency medical center, at Incheon International Airport, Monday before leaving for Nepal for relief work. / Courtesy of Myongji HospitalBy Chung Hyun-chaeMyongji Hospital sent a medical assistance team to Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, as part of its relief efforts for the quake-stricken Himalayan country. The team is comprised of five doctors and nurses who took part in voluntary medical service in Nepal last month. Kim In-byung, director of the hospital’s emergency medical center leads the team. For an efficient relief activity, an official of the Migrant Health Association in Korea accompanied the medical volunteers. A hospital spokesman said the team will work with the Nepalese for rescue and relief work by providing emergency medical service for those hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Saturday and ensuing aftershocks. The natural disaster claimed more than 3,200

46th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards

Pastor founds school in Kenya named for late daughter

The Rev. Ryu Tae-hee, left, lays a foundation stone for the Ryu Jee-sun Adventist Mission School with his fellow workers in Osinoni, western Kenya, on July 22, 2012. The school opened on March 14 after three years of construction. / Courtesy of the Rev. Ryu Tae-heeBy Jhoo Dong-chanA pastor who lost his daughter in a car accident has founded a school in Kenya named after her.“The school and students attending there make me feel like my daughter came back to life,” the Rev. Ryu Tae-hee, 58, of the Seocho Church in southern Seoul, said.To Ryu, Kenya was just a faraway country that he had never thought of visiting before his daughter Jee-sun’s death in a car accident during a summer vacation trip in August 2011. She was only 19.Ryu said everything in his life fell to pieces. He lived in despair for six months until, by chance, he found Jee-sun’s diary.Majoring in nursing at university, Jee-sun wrote in her diary about her dream to help people in need in Africa.“So I decided to make her dream come true,” Ryu said.From March 2012, Ryu started to build a

'Venture firms face challenges to survival'

Shim Dong-hoBy Park Jin-haiShim Dong-ho, CEO of NuriVision, a Seoul-based anti-spam solution provider, says that venture firms holding source technologies face a business environment hostile to their survival in Korea. “For service firms such as Kakao Talk to survive in Korea is relatively easy. But, it is extremely difficult for a small tech firm holding source technology to survive,” he said.The reason is because conglomerates want to buy out the source technology from venture firms at cheaper prices, but don’t want to share the profits with the firms.“It seems hard to imagine a future where big companies such as Google grow with the smaller venture firms together.”   His firm received a Venture Award in 2008 from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, a predecessor to the Ministry and Trade, Industry and Energy, in recognition of his firm’s innovative technology that reduces spam emails by 99 percent.   NuriVision, once regarded as an exemplary venture firm having annual sales of 680 million won, suffered a setback last year

UNICEF Korea chief calls for more donations

Suh Dae-won, executive director of the Korean Committee for UNICEF, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the UNICEF Korea office in Jongno, Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Kim Hyo-jinBy Kim Hyo-jin The chief of UNICEF Korea believes the nation should increase its donations as a responsible member of the global community.“It is natural of Korea, as a developed nation, to give back to the international community,” Suh Dae-won, executive director of the Korean Committee for UNICEF (KCU), told The Korea Times during an interview Wednesday.“In fact, we need to become a moral leader in the international community through more aid and donations.”Suh, 66, a former diplomat, was recently appointed to the post. He is a veteran diplomat who had worked with the United Nations for 12 of his 30 years in the foreign ministry. He served as director-general of the ministry’s U.N. Bureau, and as ambassador to the U.N. in the 1990s. Also, he led t

Top Hong Kong artist collaborates with YG

Eric So / Courtesy of PapamamasonBy Kim Jae-heunRenowned Hong Kong toy designer Eric So visited Korea last Friday to participate at the Art Toy Culture (ATC) fair in Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul, where he exhibited limited edition figures of Hip-hop boy band Big Bang.“This is my first time in Korea working with a Korean company,” said So, who also held his own exhibition at ATC. “I know Big Bang’s music and it was an interesting collaboration. Big Bang’s agency YG sent several pictures of the singers and their music video for reference when I designed the toys,” So said.So’s 20 years of designing had become repetitive, so he needed time to refresh his mind.“Working with YG required a lot of adjustments and communication, which allowed me to go over my designs again and again. As a result, we produced such a cute figure and I felt I was reborn as well,” said So.The toy designer has one philosophy he has lived by--his toys make people happy.“I hope Big Bang fans are happy with the figures. I tried to make each member&r

Seoul names new ambassador to UNESCO

Lee Byong-hyunBy Do Je-haeThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Lee Byong-hyun to lead its UNESCO mission in Paris, Monday.The career diplomat succeeds Lee Sang-jin, who resigned last month, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the UNESCO. There has been some media interest in who will fill the post, in light of Japan’s campaign to list some wartime site industrial sites as UNESCO heritage. The foreign ministry is opposed to the bid, saying that Japan's campaign is not consistent with the spirit of the world heritage list. As new head of the mission, Lee’s immediate task will be to promote Korea’s position to a member state of the World Heritage Committee, which will come to a decision on Japan’s proposal during sessions between June 28 and July 8.Japan’s proposal contains a request to consider the universal values of iron works in Nagasaki, coal mines in Takashima, and other sites in Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture, among others. Some of these sites were built at the cost of slave laborers from the Korean Peninsula during the Japanese occu

Tang Wei in HK Film Awards

Chinese actress Tang Wei poses after winning the Best Film award for her movie “The Golden Era” during the Hong Kong Film Awards in Hong Kong, Sunday. / AP-Yonhap

Former BOK governor dies at 85

Kim KunBy Kim Jae-wonFormer Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Kim Kun died Friday at the age of 85 of natural causes, the central bank said Monday. Kim had led the BOK from 1988-1992 under the Roh Tae-woo administration. The Busan native contributed to strengthening the central bank’s autonomy from the finance ministry. He sought to change the BOK Law to make it more independent from the shadow of the government. Kim studied political science at Seoul National University and spent most of his four-decade career at the central bank. He also headed the Korea Securities Exchange, the predecessor of the Korea Exchange, in the 1980s. He is survived by his wife Lee Kwang-il and three sons, Jae-min, Seong-min and Hwang-min. He is a son of Na Hye-sok, the first Korean female artist practitioner of Western painting. 

Korean game maker successful at Facebook

DoubleU Games CEO Kim Ga-ram, left, explains about the company’s DoubleU Casino game to Korea Exchange (KRX) CEO Choi Kyoung-soo, center, and other officials at the game developer’s office in Seoul last week. / Courtesy of KRXBy Kim Jae-wonKim Ga-ram, CEO of DoubleU Games, is well-known for his Facebook-based game DoubleU Casino. The social casino game has drawn more than 15 million users from 220 countries over three years since its launch in May 2012. The cash cow of the company was ranked the eighth-most profitable game on Facebook last month, earning 8.8 billion won ($8.1 million). It is the only game developed in Korea on the global social network service. Ironically, the reason the company advanced to Facebook directly was because Kim had no contacts within the local game industry. “I was a software engineer in a local company, and I had no interaction with people in the Korean game industry. Having no connections here, I decided to compete in the global market which has more potential,” Kim, 38, said.His strategy proved to be successful. The govern