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Seoul Community Radio celebrates two years on air

The Seoul Community Radio crew at the DMZ Peace Train Festival, from left: Curd, Yuzo, Nunchi, Rondi, Seulki, Hyunsoo and Rich. Out of frame: DJ Bowlcut.By Jon SteinSeoul Community Radio (SCR), an online radio station operating out of Itaewon dedicated to promoting underground electronic dance music in Korea, celebrates its second anniversary this month. “Any underground music scene needs a few key ingredients to really come together... you need good clubs, obviously, and DJs, but you also need record stores, labels, promoters, and you need media ― magazines, websites and yeah, radio stations. That's where we came in ― we were trying to fill that gap,” said U.K. expatriate Richard Price, one of the co-founders of SCR. “We found that there was a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the club scene here, but all of that energy was focused on the weekend, on going out and partying. With the radio station, we hoped to channel some of that enthusiasm and interest in other directions, to help the scene to grow.” An important aspect of the radio station, is that it acts as

Sep 18, 2018

Seoul Community Radio celebrates two years on air

Foreigners can leave country without paying taxes

By Kim Jae-heunForeigners will no longer be held back from leaving Korea for not paying taxes they owe here. The Ministry of Justice said Friday it decided recently to accept a recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) to end its custom of banning foreigners from departure without legal basis over unpaid penalties. Foreign children not registered to the local immigration office are also exempted.The NHRCK's recommendation will take immediate effect within this year. The Immigration Control Law has been limiting the exit of foreigners undergoing criminal trial or facing prison sentence. Those who have not paid a certain amount of their fines or surcharges are also subjected to a travel ban.However, the NHRCK suggested freeing those who have been held without legal basis.In one case last December, three young brothers and sisters aged one, three and seven years old were stopped at the airport for not having been registered as aliens at their birth here.Foreigners under 17 years old have to apply for their stay or a guardian can apply for the permit by prox

Sep 14, 2018By Kim Jae-heun

Foreigners can leave country without paying taxes

Korea to issue permanent residency to F-5 visa holders

The Ministry of Justice has announced it will start issuing permanent residency for F-5 visa holders. YonhapBy Jung Min-hoThe government will replace alien registration certificates with permanent residency for F-5 visa holders, starting Sept. 21.The Ministry of Justice said Wednesday that people who fit the requirements of staying here permanently can receive permanent residency, which must be renewed every 10 years.The policy will affect some 130,000 people, about 6 percent of all non-Korean residents here.F-5 visa holders can switch their certificates to permanent residency immediately; those who want to postpone it can do so for 12 years from the time they obtained their F-5 visas.Those who violate the rule could face a maximum fine of 2 million won ($1,800).The ministry said it will notify people the policy affects via mail.

Sep 13, 2018By Jung Min-ho

Korea to issue permanent residency to F-5 visa holders

Pakistani Korean pioneers halal food business

Ha San, a Pakistani Korean and CEO of halal food supplier Aone International in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Ha SanBy Yi Whan-wooIt all started with difficulties buying halal meat for Ha San, a Pakistani Korean who started a business and pioneered a sales network of halal food for over 13,000 Pakistanis living in Korea.Halal food was not available in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, when he opened a restaurant there in 1997, three years after he permanently settled in Korea. He had to shop at a Muslim grocery store in Seoul to purchase beef, lamb and poultry that were produced and manufactured in accordance with Islamic law.Ha, the CEO of halal food supplier Aone International, now imports various products, mainly beef and lamb from Australia, spices from Pakistan, cooking oil from the United Arab Emirates, and butter and dates from Saudi Arabia. He also processes poultry at his own plant in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, where Aone International was set up in 2004.He has since closed his restaurant to better concentrate on supplying halal food nationwide.His company has more th

Sep 12, 2018By Yi Whan-woo

Pakistani Korean pioneers halal food business

Dulwich takes education out of the classroom

Dulwich students and teachers with a Philippine family, whose new house they helped to build on a trip last year to Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines / Courtesy of Dulwich By Hallie BradleyA child's education happens outside the classroom just as much as inside it. David Jewitt, head of Outdoor Education at Dulwich College Seoul, has been working to provide a more cohesive curriculum providing not just classroom lessons but also real-life learning opportunities. “Living in a risk-averse and digital culture, many of the lessons I learnt from adventure are at risk of becoming endangered,” Jewitt explained to The Korea Times.With that in mind, he carefully constructed various meaningful experiences and challenges to allow students to take lessons from their classrooms on planning, preparation processes and problem-solving into the great outdoors.The youngest students start with spending a day out in the city on various cultural and experience programs, and staying the night

Sep 11, 2018

Dulwich takes education out of the classroom

Korea Encounters Weekly scribbles reflect life in Seoul in 1970s

By Matt VanVolkenburgThe author Ahn Jung-hyo is best known for writing the novels “White Badge” and “Silver Stallion,” but he also wrote a column for The Korea Times in the late 1960s and 1970s. In early 1972 he translated a series of “scribblings” published in weekly magazines, a type of column that had originated in the Weekly Hankook in 1965. As he put it, these pages printed “all sorts of scribblings, cartoons, and sometimes funny poems contributed by readers.”Some people devoted themselves to writing submissions for these columns, and even gathered in clubs with other such writers. The reason Ahn enjoyed these columns so much was that “there was so much wit and pathos there which in a sense showed something of the real life of the common people.” For those reading them from the vantage point of the present, they also shed light on what Korea was like in those days.A reader listing his budget for 1972, which totaled 94,335 won, owned a 7,500 won ready-made suit, paid 3,500 won for underwear, and lived on three bowls of 2

Sep 11, 2018

First wave of Korean overseas adoptees returns

Participants of the 2018 Mosaic Hapa Tour pose for a group photo in the Hotel Bupyeong Convention Center last Friday. / Image by Jon DunbarBy Jon DunbarA select group of Korean overseas adoptees have returned to Korea for a series of events intended to reconnect them with the land of their birth. These adoptees, many now in their 50s and 60s, were mostly born in camptowns outside U.S. military bases, to a Korean mother and U.S. military father. Twenty-four adoptees from the U.S., Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands and their families took part in the 2018 Mosaic Hapa Tour from Aug. 31 to Sept. 9. After that, most stuck around for the Camptowns & Korean Adoption Conference from Sept. 10 to 12 at Seoul National University (SNU) to learn more about the country and their own family history. As part of the tour, they took in the usual tourist sites of Korea, but they also stopped by some of the country's camptowns, known as “gijichon” in Korean, knocking on doors and learning about the conditions in which they came into this world. During and after the 1950-53 Korean War,

Sep 11, 2018By Jon Dunbar

First wave of Korean overseas adoptees returns

Foreign Line

RASKB lecture looks at Korea, MongoliaIn 1258, Prince Wonjo of Goryeo Kingdom traveled to China to submit to Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan. Goryeo became a vassal state of Mongolia, while still permitted to retain its monarchy and political system.Michael Hope, an assistant professor of Asian History at Yonsei University, will offer a comparative analysis of various Mongolian vassal states to overcome some of the myths and stereotypes surrounding Mongolian rule in Korean literature, entertainment and popular culture.He will lecture Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. on the second-floor lounge of Somerset Palace in downtown Seoul. All are welcome. Non-members pay 10,000 won and students pay 5,000 won. Visit raskb.com for more information.Dead Buttons, Jambinai in concertSome weekends there's nothing to do, and other weekends everything is thrown at you all at once.The hard rock trio Dead Buttons appears at Jebi Dabang near Hongik University this Friday at 9 p.m. Jebi Dabang shows are generally pay-by-donation, and offer only a single band per show. It's a slightly different format that has worked

Sep 11, 2018

60% of foreign workers feel discrimination in Korea: research

Foreign workers in South Korea are feeling the pinch of discrimination. YonhapBy Jung Hae-myoung Three in five foreign workers in Korea (59.2 percent) said they have experienced discrimination, according to a report by the Gyeonggi Family and Women's Research Institute issued on Thursday. Out of a survey of 688 foreigners, 58.4 percent chose “language barrier” as the first area in which they feel hardship.Next were racism and discrimination from Koreans (23.7 percent), cultural difference (21.9 percent), expensive health insurance (15.7 percent), lack of consultation service (13.9 percent) and bad working environment (13.1 percent). Female workers complained about racism more than male workers. Older foreign workers experienced more discrimination.In the survey, 72.2 percent said they tolerated unfair situations and only a limited number of people stood up.

Sep 8, 2018

60% of foreign workers feel discrimination in Korea: research

80 percent of Yemeni refugees interviewed on asylum request

Yemeni asylum seekers wait for consultation with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in June. Yonhap.By Jung Hae-myoungSo far 382 Yemeni refugees on Jeju Island, including six minors, have been interviewed on their request for asylum, immigration officials said Wednesday. According to the Korea Immigration Service (KIS), 481 Yemenis have applied for asylum, with 79.4 percent processed between June 25 and Sept 4. This is slower than planned. The Justice Ministry last month assigned seven officials to deal with the refugees, with four interpreters to speed up the process. Those interviewed will be “admitted” or gain “permission to stay” or “rejected” after the verification process.

Sep 6, 2018

Global Community

Global Community

Seoul Community Radio celebrates two years on air

Foreigners can leave country without paying taxes

Korea to issue permanent residency to F-5 visa holders

Pakistani Korean pioneers halal food business

Dulwich takes education out of the classroom

Korea Encounters Weekly scribbles reflect life in Seoul in 1970s

First wave of Korean overseas adoptees returns

Foreign Line

60% of foreign workers feel discrimination in Korea: research

80 percent of Yemeni refugees interviewed on asylum request

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