A three-day festival in the southern city of Daegu will highlight the Korean city’s on-going efforts to reposition itself from a “textile city” to a design capital. Design Week in Daegu, starting this Friday, will proclaim once again the hoped-for transition, as the city with a population of 2 1/2 million rolls out various events for industry insiders, experts and the general public, intended at thrusting the local industry into the spotlight of the design world. 　Visitors make bracelets using

2014 Herald Design ForumThe annual Herald Design Forum returns for its fifth edition on Nov 10, bringing together the design world’s big names to Seoul. This year, the forum will explore the potential of design when it integrates with other fields such as technology, management, psychology, humanity and art. It will focus on how design acts as an intermediary and comprehensive platform between different industries, merges them, and creates new values in the process. The forum signals the start o

Alain de Botton, best known here for his 1993 book “Essays in Love,” continues his relationship with art after his 2013 book ”Art as Therapy,” this time curating a craft exhibition in Korea. The Swiss-born British philosopher and writer has taken up the unusual job of an exhibition curator at the ongoing Cheongju International Craft Biennale to offer fresh ways to view craft. He worked with 15 Korean artists to come up with craftworks and explore their psychological side.“I started to think what

North Korea staged what's believed to be the largest-ever military parade on Saturday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party, state media showed, in a move to show off its military might.The North has hyped up the festive mood and promoted the accomplishments of its leader Kim Jong-un ahead of the anniversary.But it forewent provocative acts such as a long-range rocket launch, which the North has threatened to do so in recent weeks.Empty military vehicles

SEJONG (Yonhap) – South Korea's state electric utility company said Saturday that it will host an international exposition highlighting the advances made in the power industry and promoting the exchange of know-how.The Bitgaram International Exposition of Electric Technology (BIXPO) that will run from Monday through Wednesday in the city of Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, is to be attended by 2,000 engineers, inventors, scholars and power company representatives from 35 countries, state-

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) – North Korea is holding what is expected to be one of its biggest celebrations ever Saturday for the 70th anniversary of its ruling party's creation, an attention-getting event that is the government's way of showing the world and its own people the Kim dynasty – now in its third generation – is firmly in control and its military a power to be reckoned with.As the clock struck midnight Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un marked the anniversary by paying respect t

Two old and modern archive holdings of Korea were recognized as valuable documentary heritage by UNESCO on Saturday. The two Korean additions to the UNESCO Memory of the World are Confucian printing woodblocks of the Joseon era and the archives of the 1983 KBS special live broadcast “Finding Dispersed Families.” The decision was made at the three-day meeting of UNESCO’s International Advisory Committee that considered 87 nominations from 61 countries in Abu Dhabi from Oct. 4-6.  One of the 64,22

A new museum is set to open Thursday in Suwon near the historic site of the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace.  Suwon Ipark Museum of Art is the first city-run museum in Suwon, the largest city in Gyeonggi Province with 1.1 million people. Suwon Ipark Museum of Art (SIMA)“The museum realizes a long-held wish to create a space to bring art and art education to Suwon citizens,” said Jeong Seung-bo, exhibition director of the museum. The museum building, designed, constructed and donated by Hyundai Develop

Artist Oh In-hwan has been named the winner of the 2015 Korea Artist Prize, the National Museum of Modern, Contemporary Art, Korea said Wednesday. "Oh has explored important issues of modern society through his unique works of art that deliver strong personal messages toward social issues,” a judging committee said in a press release. Artist Oh In-hwan (MMCA)Oh, 50, has explored social and cultural issues through participatory or site-specific projects. Based on his personal experiences, Oh tran

SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama will send both a strong warning message and overtures to North Korea when they hold summit talks next week, a top U.S. official said Tuesday.They are scheduled to meet each other in Washington on Friday amid Pyongyang's threats to launch a long-range rocket and conduct another nuclear test."We are absolutely united in solidarity with regard to the challenge posed by North Korea," Deputy Secretary of State Antony Bl

STOCKHOLM (AP) – Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for discovering that tiny particles called neutrinos change identities as they whiz through the universe, proving that they have mass.By uncovering the ``chameleon-like'' nature of neutrinos, the laureates had solved a long-standing puzzle in particle physics that could alter our grasp of the cosmos, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.``The discovery has changed our understand

The Korea International Art Fair, the biggest art fair in Korea, kicked off Tuesday, introducing a wide range of artworks presented by 182 local and international galleries at Coex. In its 14th year, the fair invites leading galleries in Korea and from overseas, including Kukje Gallery, Arario Gallery and Hakgojae Gallery in Korea, Pearl Lam Gallery in Hong Kong and Tomio Koyama Gallery in Japan. Featured artists include world-renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, Tracey Emin, Kim

From India to Korea and Japan, Buddhist statues are one of the most common forms of ancient art in Asia. Sculpted of stone, wood or made in gilt bronze, sculptures of Buddha preaching, meditating or in deep thought have been important objects of worship for Buddhists for two millennia. A rare exhibition in Seoul traces the origins of Buddhist statues and follows transitions in Buddha images with the spread of Buddhism across Asia for 700 years. The exhibit, currently at the National Museum of Ko

“The Long Way Home” is a film that seeks to address both the implications of war on a grand scale and the microscopic relationship between two individual soldiers, all the while providing wholesome family comedy, moving drama and high-quality battle scenes. None of these ambitious aims, however, are quite met. Nam-bok (Sol Kyung-gu) is a farmer who has been drafted to fight in the Korean War and entrusted with the mission of delivering a crucial, top-secret document containing war strategies to

A retrospective of designer Lee Young-hee traces the iconic hanbok designer’s four-decade quest to modernize the Korean traditional costume and promote it in the global fashion stage. From traditional hanbok style, consisting of a short bolero-style blouse and a full skirt, to contemporary evening gowns that are reminiscent of hanbok’s restrictive use of colors and delicate silhouettes, some 100 of Lee’s hanbok creations are on display at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul until Oct. 9. Lee, 79, h

Art has always been about challenging existing norms and practices. For artists, defying accepted art practices often means finding new possibilities of art, thereby expanding the standard boundary of art. Artists Lee Seung-taek and Ha Chong-hyun are two pioneers in this respect. Challenging established art practices has been their lifetime task. When Koreans were used to seeing art as pretty paintings and sculptures, Lee and Ha experimented with nontraditional materials to challenge typical vis

WASHINGTON (AP) – When Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan visit Washington later this week, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, face the daunting task of trying to throw a warm and inviting dinner party for guests of honor accused of cyber-spying on the U.S., trampling human rights and engaging in assertive military tactics.China, in turn, is miffed at the U.S. for what it says are groundless accusations about hacking, and wants the U.S. to butt out of territorial dispu

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co.'s unionized workers plan to launch a partial strike starting Wednesday after their representatives and the management failed to reach an agreement on a pay raise and other working conditions.The walkout, which will last through Friday, will mark the fourth straight year of labor disputes at the country's No. 1 automaker.The two sides reportedly sparred over the introduction of a so-called wage peak system and the scope of ordinary salaries, which determine ove

NEW YORK (AFP) - The chief executive of Volkswagen America, Michael Horn, used unusually candid language to apologize and admit wrongdoing after the German car giant was caught cheating in US pollution measuring tests."Our company was dishonest, with the EPA and the California Air Resources board, and with all of you and – in my German words – we have totally screwed up," Horn said at an event in New York late Monday, according to video posted by CNBC.Horn pledged to "make things right with the

Delicate curved lines of moon jars, glistening mother-of-pearl inlay, geometric aesthetics in Korean traditional costume hanbok and alphabet Hangeul -- representative aesthetics of Korean craft and design are on view in Paris and London.In Paris, “Korea Now,” which kicked off at the Decorative Arts Museum on Friday, presents a wide spectrum of Korean art from traditional craftworks to contemporary fashion until Jan. 3, 2016. Celebrating the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea