South Korea - The Korea Times

Hardcore band the Geeks celebrates 20 years

The Geeks tour the U.S. in 2015. / Courtesy of the Geeks By Jon DunbarIt wasn't even this millennium that five friends in the local music scene came together to create the Geeks, a “youth crew” hardcore band. “In 1999, things were wild and there were so many kids who felt lost,” Seo Ki-seok, the Geeks' frontman, told The Korea Times. “A new wave of punk rock and hardcore emerged from the underground and helped them get through those tough times. At every show, it was packed. A lot of new kids and ideas. It was super organic and healthy. However, it was still so underground, which allowed very different types of bands to join their forces. Shows were so diverse back then. I'm not just talking about punk and hardcore. It was about indie rock, hip-hop and metal.” The band has stayed surprisingly consistent over 20 years, retaining three of its five founding members. Now that the members are pushing 40, they play fewer shows due to work and family demands. Seo himself w

Jul 2, 2019By Jon Dunbar

Hardcore band the Geeks celebrates 20 years

Park or bust: Yongsan community discusses US garrison's future

The U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in central Seoul / Korea Times fileBy Kyung LeeAs the relocation plan for U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Yongsan advances, residents of surrounding neighborhoods in Yongsan-gu reflect on their interactions with the base with a hint of nostalgia, as if the olden days had left their doorsteps for good.“In my apartment building, there used to be several families of U.S. military personnel, but now I don't even see one,” said Soo Hou, a resident who has lived in Ichon-dong for five years. “Although our neighborhood used to be more mixed and have a carefree atmosphere, now it seems monotonous.”Having witnessed significant changes as U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) personnel redeploy south to USAG Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, however, neighboring residents, former service members and business owners largely look forward to the opening of a new chapter. The planned Yongsan Park could rival the green acreage of Central Park, as well as excavate 115 years of history still hidden from public view.Forgotten timelineWhen asked about the garrison which dates

Jul 2, 2019

Park or bust: Yongsan community discusses US garrison's future

Korea Encounters 'Bottomless corruption' of Korea's 1965 methadone scandal

Korea Times archive July 14, 1965By Matt VanVolkenburgThe discovery of “spurious” elements in a widely sold vitamin injection in the spring of 1965 prompted an investigation that set off a cascade of shocking discoveries that shook Korean society to its core. Not only had thousands of people been sold drugs adulterated with the synthetic narcotic methadone, bribery by drug companies responsible had corrupted the very institutions that were supposed to be protecting citizens.It all began in late April 1965, when Yongnam Pharmaceutics Co. was investigated after it was discovered that its vials of B-1 vitamin injection contained no vitamins, but rather “morphine-like elements.” Within days it became clear that “23 drugs widely used by the Korean public contained a synthetic narcotic known as methadone.” The majority of those drugs had been sold outside of Seoul to farmers and miners, many of whom were reported to have become addicted.In an editorial, The Korea Times criticized the government's “seriously defective” pharmaceutical administr

Jul 2, 2019

[Korea Encounters] 'Bottomless corruption' of Korea's 1965 methadone scandal

Job fair for foreign students to be held in October

By Jung Min-hoThe Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) will hold a job fair for international students at COEX convention center in southern Seoul on Oct. 1-2.About 100 Korean companies are expected to participate. In last year's job fair, 129 companies, including POSCO and LG Chem, and 2,400 foreign students took part.The fair is free. Online registration is required for on-site interviews. For more information, call KOTRA's overseas employment team (02-3460-7384 or 02-3460-7387) or visit http://jobfair.contactkorea.go.kr/

Jun 26, 2019By Jung Min-ho

Job fair for foreign students to be held in October

The Collective presents Stories From Below

2019-06-25(코리아타임스)By Celeste KrielSeoul-based expat theater company The Collective will put on a one-day creative showcase featuring a diverse array of art forms at Emu Artspace, June 29. Following the success of their acclaimed main stage production of "Romeo and Juliet" ― reimagined as taking place in a matriarchal society ― last winter, "Stories from Below: A Collective Arts Festival" is the very first event of its kind for the company and its inaugural year will center around the theme of rebirth.??Founded in November 2017 by Seoul-based theater makers Kim Schroeder from South Africa, Ray Salcedo from the U.S. and Alameen Saidu from Nigeria, The Collective was birthed from a desire to bring underrepresented artists from different fields together and give life to their work in the spirit of intersectional collaboration and community-building. Ally Saval joined the team last year.While the showcase in and of itself is a means to deliver on their collaborative aims, it is also a fundraiser for their main stage production in December. The festival is a platform for creatives in the c

Jun 25, 2019

The Collective presents Stories From Below

Yongsan Legacy Walking runways as Korea's 1st foreign fashion model

Model Melanie Glock poses in an ad for Daehan Synthetic in the early 1970s. / Courtesy of Yongsan Legacy By Coco CugatIf you were in South Korea during the years 1970-71 and you liked staying up to date with what was going on with the fashion world, you would have probably been familiar with Melanie Glock, at the time a student from Seoul American High School. An American, Melanie was the first contracted foreign model in South Korea. She would model in big fashion shows with the country's top models for top designers including Josephine Cho and Andre Kim.“I heard that Andre Kim passed away not too long ago. He was perhaps only famous in Seoul then. He was quite young. But I know that later he became an international fashion designer known the world over,” Melanie explained to the Yongsan Legacy team.Glock got her start with Daehan Synthetic Co. through a Korean friend of her mother's who worked in television. She asked Melanie if she would like to model, introduced

Jun 25, 2019By Jon Dunbar

[Yongsan Legacy] Walking runways as Korea's 1st foreign fashion model

Hwang's claim debunked: Foreigners' treasury contribution hits $1.17 billion

Foreigners paid 1.36 trillion won ($1.178 billion) in taxes and tariffs in 2017. YonhapBy Park Si-soo Foreigners paid 1.36 trillion won ($1.178 billion) in taxes and tariffs in 2017, state financial data showed on Tuesday, debunking opposition leader Hwang Kyo-ahn's claim that foreigners have made “no contribution” to South Korea's economy. It accounted for 0.51 percent of the total tax (265 trillion won) raised in that year. Rep. Kim Kyung-hyup of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea revealed this. “If he, who served as Minister of Justice and even Prime Minister, made the claim not knowing about the size of the contribution foreigners made to the country, it would be nothing less than self-confession of being incompetent,” Kim said, referring to Hwang, chairman of the conservative main opposition Liberty Korea Party.“What if he made that claim knowing this, then it was tantamount to a shameless act aimed at misleading the people with fake news.” According to the data, the tax was collected from 558,246 foreigners. Tax on earned income accounted f

Jun 25, 2019

Hwang's claim debunked: Foreigners' treasury contribution hits $1.17 billion

Artist captures Seoul neighborhoods with acrylic, embroidery

A painting by Brittany Fanning shows a residential neighborhood in Seoul. / Courtesy of Brittany FanningBy Jon DunbarTry to picture Seoul in your mind. You're probably imagining hundreds of identical gray apartments, impersonal glass office buildings and wide streets crammed with cars. There is beauty in the city, but it's hard to come by. Brittany Fanning, an American resident of Seoul, has found a way to bring out that beauty through art. She's exhibiting a series of art pieces made with acrylic paint and embroidering on linen, showing familiar but seldom-appreciated scenes of Seoul. "I began simply by wanting to paint the two Korean villas I had lived in," Fanning told The Korea Times. "When I began sketching, I noticed all of the add-ons, satellite dishes, multicolored bricks, tangled piping and wires. What I always thought was a mess became beautifully intricate." Her paintings focus on Seoul's Gyeongnidan and Haebangchon communities, both with high foreign populations. N Seoul Tower is visible in the background of one painting. Another incorporates a scooter parked next to a no

Jun 25, 2019By Jon Dunbar

Artist captures Seoul neighborhoods with acrylic, embroidery

2 million English books for sale at 90% discount

By Park Si-soo Nearly two million books written in English will soon be for sale at up to 90 percent discount. The “Big Bad Wolf Book Sale” will take place from July 5-15 at KINTEX convention center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Genres span arts, sci-fi, romance, business, architecture, cooking and fashion, to name a few. The lowest price will be around 1,500 won ($1.29). Malaysian publisher Big Bad Wolf Books is hosting the event. It has organized the massive book fair in nine Asian countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines, with the aim of creating an environment in which people experience the joy of reading to the fullest. The event is the first fair of this kind here.

Jun 24, 2019

2 million English books for sale at 90% discount

Opposition leader backs off on 'discriminatory' foreign worker wage call

Hwang Kyo-ahn, left, chairman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, speaks in a meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. YonhapBy Park Si-sooOpposition leader Hwang Kyo-ahn on Thursday retreated on his controversial claim that the minimum wage of foreign workers should be reduced, saying it was to “criticize the government's move to increase the minimum wage rapidly, not to discriminate against foreign workers.” The chairman of the conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said the true meaning of his remark had been delivered in an “absurdly twisted way.” Hwang said South Korea “still needs more foreign workers.” This came a day after he raised the need to introduce a “different” minimum wage system for foreign workers at a meeting with CEOs of small and medium companies (SMEs) in Busan. He said foreign workers have “contributed nothing” to the country. “That's why I think it's unfair to subject Korean and foreign workers to the same wage system,” he said.Hwang faced an immediate backlash from the

Jun 20, 2019

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