Feb 21, 2020

Cho Hee-sook Asia’s Best Female Chef of 2020

Cho Hee-sook has been named Asia’s Best Female Chef of 2020 by the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, one of the most influential groups in the cuisine industry in Asia. Cho, who owns Hansikgonggan in Seoul, a Michelin-starred Korean restaurant specializing in royal court cuisine, started her culinary arts career more than 20 years ago. She has worked at five-star hotels in Seoul and in 2005, she was appointed executive chef at the South Korean Embassy in Washington. “I s

Feb 18, 2020

Lee Kwang-soo injured in car accident

South Korean star actor and entertainer Lee Kwang-soo has been injured in a traffic accident and will cancel all of his scheduled activities, his agency said Tuesday. According to King Kong by Starship, Lee was hit by a car violating traffic signals on Saturday last week. "He underwent a thorough examination at a nearby hospital and was diagnosed with a right ankle fracture," the company said. "He is now being hospitalized and receiving medical treatment." As a result, L

Feb 18, 2020

Samsung SDI employee gets credit for giving blood more than 200 times

With the coronavirus scare dragging down the amount of blood donations in South Korea well below average, exemplary cases of devoted blood donors are receiving spotlight. Battery company Samsung SDI employee Cho Hyun-su was acknowledged by the Korean Red Cross for donating blood more than 200 times over the past 20 years, according to the firm this week. Cho, 38, started giving blood from highschool years and have now drawn an accumulated 85 liters of his blood for others, which is equivalent

Feb 14, 2020

[Herald Interview] Web-serial writer Lee Nak-joon juggles three jobs

Lee Nak-joon, 35, balances three jobs -- web-serial writer, YouTuber and ear, nose and throat specialist. “At first I did not have much problems. I write fast. It usually takes around an hour and a half for me to write one episode (for my daily update). For YouTube, I only spent around 15 minutes shooting a video that is around 10 minutes,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald. It became tougher to manage last year after his web serial “Trauma Center: Golden Hour&

Feb 6, 2020

Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas dead at 103

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- US silver screen legend Kirk Douglas, the son of Jewish Russian immigrants who rose through the ranks to become one of Hollywood's biggest-ever stars, has died, his family said Wednesday. He was 103. One of the last survivors of the golden age of cinema and the father of Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker Michael Douglas, the "Spartacus" actor was renowned for the macho tough guy roles he took on in around 90 movies over a six-decade career. "It is with trem

Feb 5, 2020

Yi Sang Literary Award organizer cancels this year’s awards, modifies contract terms in response to protests

Munhaksasang, the publishing company that confers South Korea’s prestigious Yi Sang Literary Award, apologized Tuesday for the controversy that emerged when three of this year’s runners-up refused to accept their awards to protest contract terms they deemed unfair. “We apologize to everyone who was hurt and disappointed by this issue,” Munhaksasang CEO Lim Ji-hyun said in a statement. “We now realized that the biggest problem was our lack of awareness of copyright

Jan 19, 2020

Interviewers outshine star guests on YouTube

The norm of interviewers having limited roles in front of the camera no longer holds true, as more South Korean interviewers are starting to shine on YouTube. Interviewer and producer Lee Eun-jae of variety show “MMTG,” a program that kicked off on SBS’ YouTube platform in February 2018, is one such example. The program, which features interviews with stars in different fields, has a separate YouTube channel with more than 40,900 subscribers as of Sunday. Lee, also known as Jae

Jan 19, 2020

[Contribution] What the Korean War Wall of Remembrance means to me

With the world anxiously waiting to see if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will resume intercontinental ballistic missile testing, to include potentially testing a missile capable of reaching the eastern United States, it is well to remember the conflict that is the root of the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula. On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea. Following the North Korean invasion, the Unite

Jan 16, 2020

Actor Joo Jin-mo apologizes to women mentioned in his hacked text messages

Actor Joo Jin-mo, in trouble after his personal mobile text messages were leaked by hackers, apologized Thursday to his acquaintances and the women mentioned in the messages."Following the incident, I am leading a life in which I can't even breathe. I am sorry to everybody," he said in a message released through his legal representative."I bow deeply and ask for forgiveness from (them) ... but I have never committed the immoral act of taking secret photos of women or circulating t

Jan 15, 2020

Popularity of Korean music to go beyond K-pop in next decade: columnist, jazz musician

US-based K-pop columnist Jeff Benjamin and renowned jazz vocalist Nah Youn-sun, the two winners of the Korea Image Awards given by the Corea Image Communication Institute, said Tuesday that global attention to Korean music is expanding beyond K-pop as the country boasts the world’s sixth-largest music industry.“It is really special to think how much Korean music has grown for the 10 years,” said Benjamin during a press event at InterContinental Seoul Coex on the sidelines of CI

Jan 14, 2020

CICI recognizes SK Telecom, K-pop writer Benjamin, jazz singer Nah for contributions to Korea’s image

83 percent of foreign survey respondents associate Korea with conglomerates, 85 percent cite synchronized dance as top reason for K-pop’s popularity

Jan 13, 2020

Korean American included in NASA's future Moon, Mars exploration program

LOS ANGELES -- A Korean American doctor has been included in the list of 11 new astronauts who will take part in the upcoming Moon and Mars exploration program, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Sunday.Jonny Kim will be joining the Artemis project, which aims to send people to the Moon by 2024. The program will use the knowhow and experience learned to place astronauts on Mars by the mid-2020s to 2030, according to the agency. Born in Los Angeles, Kim is a highly

Jan 9, 2020

Justin Bieber reveals he has Lyme disease

MONTREAL (AFP) -- Pop super star Justin Bieber announced Wednesday that he has Lyme disease.In a post on Instagram, Bieber said he will address his struggle with the illness, which is contracted through a tick bite, in a YouTube documentary."It's been a rough couple years but getting the right treatment that will help treat this so far incurable disease and I will be back and better than ever," the 25 year old entertainer wrote in the post's caption.He called out critics who he says ha

Jan 8, 2020

Koreans spend on reading habits

Many Koreans are willing to spend money to achieve their New Year’s goal to read more books.Around 12.25 percent of Koreans said that their top New Year’s goal is to achieve personal development, mainly through reading books, according to online survey platform Now N Survey. Buying a house, at 17 percent, topped the list of responses in the survey conducted among 1,420 people from Dec. 10 to Jan. 7. Setting up a goal is the easy part; good habits are hard to form. In market rese