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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

GBN Live House releases 42-band CD to survive plague, flood

GBN Live House is located in the basement of an industrial building in southwestern Seoul's Mullae-dong. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar By Ian WhiteMullae-dong in southwestern Seoul is home to many loud things. None louder than a small basement, surrounded by grinding steel shops, that many call the home of punk and heavy metal in Korea.GBN Live House, a DIY venue and center of loud, experimental and obnoxious music in Seoul, is in danger of shutting down due to the COVID-19 crisis and from structural damage to the 50-year-old building incurred by flooding. The venue is raising funds by releasing a compilation titled “Golden Hits,” featuring 42 local bands, and selling “Smash the COVID-19” T-shirts to raise funds.The compilation, available to purchase as a digital album and as a CD via indie music platform Bandcamp, includes internationally known bands like the Geeks, Scumraid, Little Puppy Princess and Slant through to more local and occasionally eclectic artist

May 26, 2020By Jon Dunbar
GBN Live House releases 42-band CD to survive plague, flood

Foreign Line

Architect leads palace tourArchitect Cho In-souk offers a tour of Changdeok Palace for the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea.She will lead the way through palace buildings and the rear garden, highlighting the symbolic, practical and physical layout of the spaces. “The palace displays a perfect harmony between nature and its buildings, with its spectacular layout standing of the mountain at its back and the surrounding nature embraced as a part of landscape gardening,” she wrote in an online invitation.The tour costs 20,000 won for RAS Korea members and 25,000 won for non-members, plus an additional payment for entry into the palace and secret garden. Participants are reminded to wear masks. Visit raskb.com or fb.com/raskb for more information or to register.

May 26, 2020By Jon Dunbar

Expat artist releases coloring book for cat shelter

The coloring cards Brittany Fanning made for CATS, Whiskers Ministop are on display. / Courtesy of CATS, Whiskers MinistopBy Jon DunbarBrittany Fanning had no idea what she was getting into when she asked friends online for pictures of their cats. The U.S. resident of Seoul aimed to produce drawings suitable for a coloring book, but she found herself inundated with hundreds of requests. And after the first wave of people shared her line drawings, their friends wanted a chance to color pictures of their own cats. “I started making these coloring pages for my nieces and nephews when quarantine first started in America,” she told The Korea Times. “It spread to friends' children, then adults who wanted to color their own pets. I started drawings pets for expats and it got a little out of control when hundreds of people started sending me images.”Fanning certainly underestimated the popularity of coloring books for adults. “It began as a project for children, but I definitely think adults are coloring them more, especially during this strange time,” she

May 26, 2020By Jon Dunbar
Expat artist releases coloring book for cat shelter

Expats cry foul over points-based new visa rules

Ministry of Justice recently proposed rule changes for the F-2-7- visa which is drawing outcries from expats in Korea. Korea Times fileBy Kim Se-jeong Jennifer Strout is an English teacher in Korea and has been working to found a nonprofit school for low-income families.She said her hopes are to contribute to the community which she now calls home and to become a Korean citizen in the future.Yet, her plan is likely to become a distant dream with the Ministry of Justice's recent proposal for rule changes for the F-2-7 visa. The changes are not yet final as the government is still collecting opinions. Yet, Strout, along with many expats in Korea, are worried that the proposal would cut short their time in Korea. According to the proposal, the visa which is run on a points system would allocate the most points to annual income. For example, under the current system, 10 points are allocated for those who earn 100 million won or more, but that will change to 60 points.Age, education level and Korean language proficiency are other criteria, and the points allocated for each would also be r

May 24, 2020By Kim Se-jeong
Expats cry foul over points-based new visa rules
  • South Korea launches integrated administrative services website for expats
  • More expats have their voices heard in Korea

South Korea launches integrated administrative services website for expats

Captured from the websiteBy Park Si-soo South Korea has launched an integrated administrative services website for expats to better serve the ever-increasing foreign population here. “Government 24” offers nearly 100 services that several government bodies had controlled separately. They include the 47 most sought-after services regarding long-term residence in South Korea and 53 for employment, marriage and education, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), which manages the website. Registered expats can apply for 20 “critical” state certificates ― such as the certificate of alien registration, acquisition of Korean nationality, and entry and exit ― on the website, the ministry said. “We are trying hard to improve the quality of life of foreign residents,” said Lee Jae-young, a MOIS director who manages the website.For more information, visit the website: https://www.gov.kr/portal/foreigner/en

May 20, 2020
South Korea launches integrated administrative services website for expats
  • Expats cry foul over points-based new visa rules

Cityscapes Noryangjin seafood vendors make their last stand

Early morning on Feb. 21, eviction protesters of Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market prepare to defend their encampment in front of Noryangjin Station with bottled water. / Courtesy of Ron BandunBy Ron BandunThe tent village in front of Noryangjin Station resembled a typical Seoul night market, as merchants dug in their heels and prepared for an imminent assault. They had some seafood products on display, as well as a couple tanks full of fish, but sales were the last thing on their minds. Word was a force of 400 to 500 hired goons would descend on these mostly peaceful elderly protesters around 4 a.m. and evict them forcefully from the square. There were now only 70 to 80 merchants left, people who had done business out of the old Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. The market was now hidden behind demolition fences. A new building had opened next door in October 2015, and most of the merchants had relocated there, some less enthusiastically than others. The new building looks cleaner, but it doesn't smell better ― apparently due to lack of ventilation as it isn't an open-air m

May 19, 2020By Jon Dunbar

Expat-run garden offers fresh food, spicy sauces

Ryan Phillips, left, is assisted as he prepares lamb pitas for farm guests, May 16. Image courtesy of Hallie BradleyBy Hallie BradleyBear Foot Gardens has been making a name for itself with its extra-spicy sauces for a couple years, but now they'll be reaching even more people with the help of Shuttle Delivery. Bear Foot's landowner, gardener Ryan Phillips, has started to bring seasonal comfort foods straight from the farm to Seoul residents with his new endeavor, Farm Kitchen by Ryan. This option will allow even more people to enjoy the organic seasonal food that Phillips has been producing in Suwon for four years.While working in the culinary department of Suwon Science College a decade ago, Phillips went looking for fresh herbs and jalapenos but was told they were unavailable or too expensive. A garden club on campus was born and though that fizzled out when the students left for summer break, Phillips developed an enthusiasm for gardening. “I caught the bug,” began Phillips, a U.S. resident of Suwon originally from Flower Mound, Texas. “Over the next year or two

May 19, 2020By Jon Dunbar

Life in the time of coronavirus

Heart and Lyam Breen playing Rummikub / Courtesy of Michael BreenBy Michael BreenIt seems like years, but it was just a few weeks ago that life changed. At first, family abroad were concerned about us here next to China. But now, it's us looking, mouths agape behind our masks, at Europe and America, wondering whether the conviction we had that they do everything better in those advanced countries was insecurity. For me, change did not happen at once. Being optimistic and being one of those annoying people who needs to be persuaded that something is right before I do it ― two attitudes which may account for the fatal delay in precaution-taking in Western countries and subsequent illiberal lockdowns ― I couldn't see the point of masks at first. When I did wear one, it was to avoid being seen as the ugly foreigner. Talking of which, I've noticed I get more looks. Maybe covering half my face makes me better looking. There's a lot to be said for modesty.Work has not suffered so far. I drive places instead of taking buses and taxis. Otherwise, the changes are small.It's my wife and childre

May 18, 2020

South Korea offers undocumented foreigners free virus test with no risk of deportation

Graphic by Kim Bo-kyungBy Park Si-soo South Korea is offering undocumented foreigners a coronavirus test free of charge and with no risk of apprehension and deportation, according to a text message on Thursday. In the Korean message delivered to millions of mobile phone subscribers across the country, the Ministry of Health and Welfare urged undocumented foreigners with virus symptoms to contact a public health office and arrange a test.It noted the test would be free and their identities secure so they would face no risk of apprehension and deportation.Here is the full text of the message: “[Ministry of Health and Welfare] Undocumented foreign workers with suspicious symptoms can take a coronavirus test free of charge, with no risk of deportation. Please feel free to contact a local health office if this is your case and share this information with your undocumented foreign friends, if any.”

May 14, 2020
South Korea offers undocumented foreigners free virus test with no risk of deportation

TOPIK canceled worldwide due to pandemic

The Korean language proficiency test slated for later this month in over 60 countries worldwide has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, its organizer said Thursday.Seoul's National Institute for International Education said it has canceled the 69th Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), scheduled to take place in 64 countries, including South Korea, on May 24, for fears of community spread of COVID-19.The education ministry-affiliated institute noted that South Korea's alert status on the novel coronavirus still remains at the highest "serious" level amid fears of a second wave of infections traced to a Seoul entertainment district.The institute had planned to administer TOPIK, a language proficiency test for foreigners whose native language is not Korean, six times in South Korea and five times outside the country in 2020.It said Taiwan, praised for its successful pandemic response, will be the sole exception and TOPIK will be held in three Taiwanese cities ― Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung ― on May 24 as scheduled.Exam fees will be fully refunded for the canceled tests, a

May 14, 2020
TOPIK canceled worldwide due to pandemic
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