South Korea - The Korea Times

Itaewon businesses promote positivity with challenge

Students participate in a yoga class at The Flow Room. / Courtesy of Noriphotography.comBy Hallie BradleyBusinesses in Itaewon are looking to move on from the “Itaewon Cluster” stigma and bring people back to the district that has become a virtual ghost town since early May. To do that, three local foreign-owned businesses ― The Flow Room, Sprout and Wasteupso decided to work together and host a month-long event called Inner-Outer Glow in July to not only bring some positive light to the Itaewon area, but also promote healthy habits and sustainability. The main host of the event, The Flow Room, was established in Itaewon in May 2019. “There were already great English-led yoga classes in Seoul, but there was no dedicated English-speaking yoga studio to provide a center for the community,” founder Isabel Kwak explained. She chose Itaewon as it is not only centrally located in the city, but as her business was built specifically for English-speaking clientele, being in a foreign district in Seoul just made sense. Isabel Kwak works with a student at The Flow Room.

Jun 23, 2020By Jon Dunbar

Korea Encounters Discrimination, stifled protests, race riots in 1971

U.S. servicemen in civilian clothes stage an anti-war demonstration on the steps of Cosmos Department Store in Myeong-dong, May 18, 1971. / Korea Times archiveBy Matt VanVolkenburgSeveral Black Lives Matter rallies were held in Korea in the second weekend of June ― taking place in Seoul and at U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, where a race riot took place in 1971.Race relations in the U.S. military were volatile in the early 1970s, particularly in Korea. Protests against “discrimination in the barracks” at Camp Kaiser near Cheorwon in May 1970 led to a clash with military police (MPs) and the burning of five buildings.On the morning of Jan. 15, 1971, 600 black soldiers from various units held a memorial service for Martin Luther King on the third anniversary of his assassination at a base in Paju. Two hundred of them then marched in the streets, “chanting Negro spirituals and shouting anti-racial discrimination slogans” before gathering for five hours in a nightclub and demanding Jan. 15 be legislated as a holiday, according to The Korea Times

Jun 23, 2020By Jon Dunbar

[Korea Encounters] Discrimination, stifled protests, race riots in 1971

INTERVIEW Korea's Cambodian carom queen banks on Southeast Asia

Sruong Pheavy at Billking Korea Art Hall in Suwon, June 16. The Cambodian carom ball master hopes that one day she can play for her country. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulBy Ko Dong-hwanSUWON ― Sruong Pheavy, Korea's top-ranked three-cushion carom player and world's No.2, wants more than just to win more games. The wife of a Korean man wants to broaden the games appeal in Cambodia ― her mother land ― and throughout the Southeast Asia where snooker and other pocket ball sports are still relatively major. Behind this ambition is her passion that was sown just less than a decade ago in 2011 when her husband Kim Man-sik, 28 years her senior, took her to a local carom parlor in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, to introduce her to the sport. That was all she needed. “Out of all the good things that have happened here, the very first was having met a good man like my husband,” said Pheavy, 31, who had come to Korea in 2010 from Kampong Cham, where she worked on her father's potato farm. The novice then took off in the country's biggest billiard sport, scoring wins agai

Jun 21, 2020By Ko Dong-hwan

[INTERVIEW] Korea's Cambodian carom queen banks on Southeast Asia

Korea Encounters Itaewon once again at center of virus fears

The hill of Itaewon, seen in 1978 / Courtesy of Charles Woodruff/Yongsan Legacy By Matt VanVolkenburg South Korea has received international praise for its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, but just as the number of daily new cases dropped into the single digits, a new cluster appeared, centered on clubs in Itaewon. Engaging in decadence and “overconsumption” was criticized in the past as a threat to economic development, and in the 1970s nightclubs were targeted in “social purification” campaigns, so it is no surprise that clubbing at a time when the nation is battling COVID-19 would not go over well.That the clubs were in Itaewon made the response even more severe. Sitting next to Yongsan Garrison, which has housed Japanese and U.S. troops over the past 110 years, Itaewon has long been seen as a foreign neighborhood and perceived as an “ethnic exhibition within Korea” (as a 1984 Kyunghyang Shinmun article put it). A place with a “dark nature,” it is also associat

Jun 16, 2020By Jon Dunbar

[Korea Encounters] Itaewon once again at center of virus fears

COVID-19 devastates Itaewon businesses

COVID-19 devastates Itaewon businesses

The alley behind Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, once a major foodie mecca, is deserted last Saturday at 5:30 p.m. / Korea Times photo by Jon DunbarBy Hallie BradleyCOVID-19 has done no favors to food and beverage businesses since the initial outbreak in Daegu months ago, but many restaurants continue to open as they find themselves in a catch-22. They won't survive if they don't open ― but if they do, they have to just hope they aren't visited by an infected patient which puts them on the map. The government has done an amazing and internationally touted job with its test-and-trace program to keep residents informed but it has some pitfalls, as businesses in Itaewon have learned. “While I appreciate and applaud the efforts made by the Korean government to mitigate and curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the country,” explained Juweon Kim, cofounder and CEO of Vatos Urban Tacos in Itaewon, “I think what we have experienced in Itaewon is one of the negative consequences of the very public track-and-trace methods being employed by the government. Itaewon served as the low-ha

Jun 16, 2020

Korea Encounters Itaewon once again at center of virus fears

'Unqualified' expats question Seoul's guidelines for relief fund payments

Public servants at Seoul's Seongbuk District Office with a banner reading “Emergency Disaster Relief Fund” in large text, discuss the city's disaster relief funds. YonhapBy Ko Dong-hwanA tenured Indian university professor of economics in Seoul did not expect he would not receive the national disaster relief fund he thought was for all residents. Having lived in Korea with his family for 17 years, he contacted his local community center in Songpa District and called the Seoul City Help Center for Foreigners hotline to find out why ― only to be told he was not eligible because and his family members were not permanent residents. But even after hearing the news, he still wondered about the criteria that determined a foreigner's eligibility for the subsidy. “I just wanted to know the exact rules and regulations regarding this,” the professor, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Korea Times.The professor is among many foreigners in Seoul who did not receive their share of the relief fund that the central government and city governments each budgeted and alloc

Jun 16, 2020By Ko Dong-hwan

'Unqualified' expats question Seoul's guidelines for relief fund payments

Lack of disaster relief for expats unfair: watchdog

Migrants and Korean activists protest outside Cheong Wae Dae on May 7, urging the local government COVID-19 subsidy be paid to all foreign residents in the country, including those "unregistered." News1By Ko Dong-hwanThe South Korean human rights watchdog has stepped in after the governments of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province in March excluded some foreign residents from their disaster relief funds amid COVID-19's blow to the domestic economy. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said Thursday it had advised Seoul mayor Park Won-soon and Gyeonggi provincial governor Lee Jae-myung to subsidize “all foreign residents” in their regions with registered addresses, according to Korean local news outlet Nocut News.The independent state agency said that after examining experts' opinions, precedent cases of COVID-19 subsidies allocated by governments, the constitution and local autonomy laws, it concluded that not paying the money to the foreign residents was “discrimination on an unreasonable ground.”Article 12 and 13 of the local autonomy law, cited by the agenc

Jun 12, 2020By Ko Dong-hwan

Lack of disaster relief for expats unfair: watchdog

Seoul 11th most expensive city for expats: survey

Seoul's night viewBy Lee Hyo-jin, Park Si-soo What is the world's most expensive city for expats?Seoul ranks 11th out of 209 cities this year in a survey conducted in March by Mercer, a U.S. human resources consulting firm. It is down seven places from last year. Hong Kong has topped the list for two years in a row, followed by Ashgabat, Tokyo, Zurich and Singapore. Mercer said Hong Kong kept the title due to currency movements measured against the U.S. dollar, which resulted in an increase in the cost of living. Mercer has released the cost of living survey annually for 26 years, based on a comparison of more than 200 goods and services, including housing, transportation, food, household goods and entertainment. The world's least-expensive cities for expats are Tunis (209), Windhoek (208) and Tashkent and Bishkek, which tied to rank 206.

Jun 12, 2020By Lee Hyo-jin

Seoul 11th most expensive city for expats: survey

INTERVIEW Former Maoist writes for China's democracy

Chinese dissident Wu Zhenrong prays at the Seoul Chinese Church in Daelim-dong, Seoul, last Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulChinese dissident in exile releases memoir on his 'double life' as a Red Guard and rebel By Kang Hyun-kyungChinese dissident Wu Zhenrong, 71, has been in a lonely fight for a free, democratic China― a daunting goal for the foreseeable future.To make his voice heard, instead of organizing rallies or taking to the street, he writes tirelessly from his home in Seoul to keep issues like democracy in China and the fallacies spread by the Communist Party at the focus of public discourse. His writing mission for China's democracy has continued for five decades against all odds. The past 18 years of his life as the first Chinese to have earned refugee status in South Korea has been rocky. Before he moved to his current place in Guro-dong, Seoul, Wu had lived in a tiny single-room house in an urban slum near Garibong-dong. The neighborhood was dangerous and unsanitary. His mentor Rev. Choe Hwang-gyu called Wu's place “a dog pit,” saying he

Jun 11, 2020By Kang Hyun-kyung

[INTERVIEW] Former Maoist writes for China's democracy

RAS Korea US' 1871 invasion of Ganghwa Island

United States Marines on the walls of Deokjin fort, Ganghwa Island, June 1871. / Courtesy of RAS Korea By Steven L. ShieldsU.S. warships entered Korean waters in the spring of 1871. Supposedly a diplomatic mission to secure a treaty protecting shipwrecked sailors, misunderstanding prevailed. Both parties mishandled the situation and the shooting started. A landing party arrived at Choji fort, but the first shot was fired north of there. But this fort is where the primary battle broke out on June 10. The U.S. Marines, joined by sailors, continued northward along the coastline of the island, proceeding from Choji fort to Deokjin fort, which Joseon forces had abandoned. While there, the Marines took their now-famous group photo while standing on the walls of the fort.The march to the next objective, Sondolmok fort and the fortress of Gwangseongbo, was grueling. The island is hilly, then with lots of brush and other growth. The sun was hot in June. But their destination

Jun 9, 2020By Jon Dunbar

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