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Joseon-era exam

An inspector monitors time passing using his mobile phone at a historical reenactment of a Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910)-era state exam to select ranking public officials, held at Gyeonghui Palace in Jongno, Seoul, Sunday./ Yonhap

Oct 5, 2014

Hallyu mogul mourns wife's death

Lee Soo-manGlobal hallyu entertainment company SM Entertainment’s CEO Lee Soo-man is mourning the death of his wife, belated reports say.Lee’s wife Kim Eun-jin, 53, died of stomach cancer on Tuesday, the company reported in a press release Sunday.According to the release, Kim was diagnosed in December 2012 and underwent surgery the following month. She underwent further treatment and fought the disease for the next two years.The company said her husband, 62, was at her bedside in hospital almost every day.Kim was buried on Thursday, with only family members in attendance.Lee and Kim were married in 1984. Kim is also survived by their two sons.

Oct 5, 2014By Ko Dong-hwan

Tearful entertainer gives moving Sewol speech

Kim Je-dongPopular entertainer Kim Je-dong warmed a crowd of about 1,000 with a tearful speech to Sewol victims’ families on Friday in which he emphasized love for children and less anger toward President Park Geun-hye. The host and comedian, 41, took part in a cultural festival at Paengmok Port in Jindo, South Jeolla Province on Friday, devoted to commemorating the April accident that claimed 294 lives, mostly students from Ansan Danwon High School in Gyeonggi Province. It was cold and close to midnight when an emotional Kim spoke to the crowd.“The least, and the only thing we can do is pray for the students,” said Kim. “It is the best thing we can do ... Our lost children are asking us from above, and we should be obliged to answer them.”Kim asked the crowd to share their deepest sorrow for the students who died and for the surviving students and the victims’ families. He also urged people to care for and respect their president.“I don’t care for all the criticism of the president, who is clearly aware that citizens are hurt

Oct 5, 2014By Ko Dong-hwan

Tearful entertainer gives moving Sewol speech

News English pattern 2

안성진의 안글리쉬: "뉴스 영어 패턴2" 동영상 강의

Oct 4, 2014By Ahn Seong-jin

National Foundation Day

Citizens hold a street parade to celebrate National Foundation Day, wearing traditional Korean costumes and masks of Dangun, the legendary founder of Gojoseon, the first kingdom in Korea, in front of Deoksu Palace in central Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap

Oct 3, 2014

Korea's filthy rich kids

Over 800 children under the age of 13 are classified by banks as VIP customers because they hold at least one billion won ($1.88 million) in their personal accounts, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).Rep. Kim Tae-hwan of the ruling Saenuri Party released the information in a bid to highlight the growing economic gap among young Koreans."Just like with adults, there is a concentration of wealth and a concentration of poverty,” Kim said.The child with the largest bank account had 29 billion won ($2.7 million) in Hana Bank. The second richest had 10.3 billion won stowed away with Shinhan Bank."We need to look at where these large figures come, determine if there are problems regarding tax declarations or problems in the accumulation of the wealth,” Kim said.

Oct 3, 2014

Filmmaker creates 'Happy' video for Seoul

Seoul now has its own version of the “Happy” dance.South African filmmaker Raoul Dyssell released a video this week that shows Seoulites dancing to the hit Pharrel Williams' song by the same name.Dyssell told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that he wanted to help cheer up Koreans in the aftermath of April’s Sewol ferry disaster."The atmosphere in Seoul was so dead. Nobody wanted to smile or admit they were happy," he told WSJ’s Korea Realtime blog. The video, which has over 35,000 hits on YouTube, features both expats and locals.People featured in the video include conscript soldiers dancing in uniforms at the War Memorial in Seoul; families spending time by the Han River; and high school students jumping around in the hallway."It was the Sewol tragedy that really compelled me to do it in the end. So many innocent people, so many children, were lost that day and it broke my heart," the filmmaker told culture website Pop Mythology. "I really wanted to inject some happy energy into the city so I decided I was going to do it."The video is a fan-made tribute to Phar

Oct 3, 2014

Filmmaker creates 'Happy' video for Seoul

Beijing copies Korean comedy show

China's "Yiqi Lai Xiao Ba" (left), and Korea's "Gag Concert" (right)A Chinese channel has plagiarized part of a popular South Korean comedy show, the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) claims.China’s Jiangsuweishi TV screened a show titled “Yiqi Lai Xiao Ba,” which translates as “Come Here and Let’s Laugh Together,” parts of which had an uncanny resemblance to the KBS “Gag Concert.”“It is rare to find such a program copying the exact name and format, even for Chinese channels that have a vague concept of copyright,” a KBS spokesman told Yonhap news agency. “This program copied the stage and the scenery, and the script was exactly the same as well”He said the choreography for “Let It Be” and “Dance-su-da” had also been copied.“There were plagiarism reports a month ago, but we couldn’t make any judgment because their show had not been aired yet,” said KBS production director Kwon Yong-taek. “But after watching their program yesterday I was horrified _ a seven-minute segm

Oct 3, 2014

Korea launches 'two babies' campaign

The Ministry of Health and Welfare this week released a public service announcement (PSA) encouraging families to have two children in a bid to boost the nation’s sagging birth rate. "Most couples think that raising one child well is enough, but a bigger brother or a sister would teach sociability, order, cooperation, and trust," the television PSA says. "A happy family consists of two or more children growing up together."The 40-second video shows siblings in pairs snuggling, watering flowers, and reading books next to each other."It is ideal to give birth to more than two children," the ministry said in a press release. "We wanted to change the way people think about the difficulties regarding raising more babies."According to the ministry, the nation has consistently marked low fertility rates, averaging 1.3 children per woman since 2001.

Oct 2, 2014

Kim Jong-un's nephew snubs South Korean media

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's nephew has given the cold shoulder to a South Korean news agency in France.Kim Han-sol is the son of Kim Jong-nam and the grandson of former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il."Please stop," he told Yonhap News Agency, as he walked into his dormitory room and closed the door on the reporter, who was asking about his father's whereabouts.Kim Jong-nam, brother of the totalitarian state’s leader, had recently been assumed to have visited Paris to see his son.Kin Han-sol, a student at the Le Havre Campus of France's Sciences Po University, refused to speak when the reporter approached him as he was returning to his dormitory after class.The reporter repeatedly asked, "How is school life?" and, "Have you met your father recently?"According to the agency, Kim's classmates told the media he got along well with his friends and had spent a good school year.Special guards had supervised Kim shortly after Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-un's uncle and a close relative of Kim Han-sol, had fallen from grace and been executed.South Korean media had seen his father

Oct 2, 2014

Others

Others

Joseon-era exam

Hallyu mogul mourns wife's death

Tearful entertainer gives moving Sewol speech

News English pattern 2

National Foundation Day

Korea's filthy rich kids

Filmmaker creates 'Happy' video for Seoul

Beijing copies Korean comedy show

Korea launches 'two babies' campaign

Kim Jong-un's nephew snubs South Korean media

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