Columnist for The Korea Herald and the Elders Press of Korea, Kim Myong-sik has released “All in the Same Boat,” a compilation of 140 columns that he wrote for the Elders Press of Korea from March 2017 to July 2020. This is a second compilation of his columns. “Jongno Square,” containing three year‘s worth of columns, was published in 2013. In journalism for more than 40 years, Kim has served as a correspondent for Reuters, managing editor of the Korea Times and

As the 2020 League of Legends World Championship looms closer with the opening ceremony on Sept. 25, ESPN released its annual power rankings for the teams competing this year, Wednesday. Damwon Gaming, the top-seeded team coming out of LoL Champions Korea, placed second out of the 22 teams participating in the event, as ranked by the four ESPN analysts. To no surprise, analysts of ESPN assessed China’s first seed Top Esports as the strongest team coming into the event, as did most other

Since finalizing her divorce from actor Ahn Jae-hyun in July, Koo Hye-sun has been busy as an actor, director, artist and musician. Her latest engagement is an art exhibition at the upcoming Bucheon International Animation Festival. Koo, who has directed three feature films and five short films since 2008, is one of the feature film judges at BIAF 2020. She will be joining a panel of world-class directors, including Anca Damian, who won last year’s grand prize, and director Kim Bo-ra of

The Korea Queer Film Festival is being held online on the streaming platform Purplay from Friday to Sept. 29, showing 20 films related to queer life. KQFF, now in its 20th year, aims to share the diverse lives of sexual minorities through the screenings while providing a place for queer people in the film industry to network and contribute to the development of queer movies. Although the festival is usually held around June, it was postponed due to the spread of COVID-19. The slogan for this

Autumn packages at Walkerhill Grand Walkerhill Seoul offers three fall packages for those looking for a fall staycation and a hike on Achasan. Two Falling in Fall packages include a one-night stay in a grand deluxe room and a choice of chicken and beer or pizza, at starting prices of 184,000 won and 194,000 won. The hotel also offers the Autumn Sky package, which includes a one-night-stay in the club suite room, along with breakfast and happy hour at the club lounge starting at 330,000 won.

While it has become common for songs from movie and drama soundtracks to hit the top of music charts, songs related to webtoon stories have not generally reached that level of recognition. That may no longer be the case. After its release in July 20, “Slightly Tipsy,” a song from the soundtrack of Daum Webtoon “She is My Type” by K-pop group B1A4’s Sandeul steadily climbed the charts to reach the No. 2 spot on the Melon charts, just after BTS’s “Dyna

Following widespread controversy over violent and sexually explicit content in his work, Naver webtoon “Hellper” author Sakk apologized Monday and said he was taking a break. It was the 248th episode of the webtoon’s second season. While controversy over “Hellper” began brewing as soon as the new season kicked off in 2016, things came to a head Sept. 11 when the local media picked up comments that had appeared on an online community site a few days earlier. The w

Korean zombie thriller “#Alive,” by director Cho Il-hyung, continues to be one of the most streamed movies on Netflix in many countries around the globe, currently standing at No. 2 in global Netflix movie rankings worldwide, according to streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol. “#Alive,” starring Yoo Ah-in and Park Shin-hye, is a story about two survivors trapped in an apartment complex during a zombie apocalypse. It was the first movie released since March to sell more th

Director Yoon Dan-bi’s “Moving On” won the Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film, for which freshman and sophomore directors are eligible, at the New York Asian Film Festival on Saturday evening. Now in its 19th year, the film festival celebrating Asian films across genres was held online from Aug. 29 to Saturday due to the spread of COVID-19. In previous years, the two-week festival had been held around June. Several Korean films were presented at the online festival, includ

Minah, formerly of K-pop group ILUV, was found attempting suicide on the Seongsan Bridge in Seoul around noon on Wednesday, according to the police. The singer posted, “What I am thinking right now. I want to disappear,”on her social media before going to the Han River. On Thursday, Minah, via social media, pleaded for people to stop posting negative comments about her. She also posted a video showing her former agency WKS ENE commenting on her YouTube video a web link that direct

InterContinental to offer 2020 Chuseok Gift Sets Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas and InterContinental Seoul Coex in Samseong-dong are offering delivery of the 2020 Chuseok Gift Set to help communicate best wishes to loved ones from a distance. Alongside the 40 carefully selected premium products, a premium memorial rites table for ancestors prepared by InterContinental’s Korean cuisine chefs is also available this year for the first time. The Chef’s Assorted Memorial Service T

Jo Jun-ki, CEO of Travelholic, died Wednesday afternoon, eight days after he attempted to take his own life, police said Wednesday. In an Instagram post on Sept.1, Jo asked for forgiveness for his actions. He also asked that his funeral be held with just his family members in attendance because of COVID-19 and posted his bank account number to which people could send condolence money. “I am sorry everyone,” posted Jo on Sept. 1. “I don’t want to be a burden to anyone a

The four-day international music fair “2020 MU:CON” will take place online Sept. 23 - Sept. 26, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency on Wednesday. Now in its 9th year, MU:CON gathers members of the music industry and artists for discussions about the industry and to showcase performances from both Korean and international groups. “The music industry has shown the power of K-pop through a fast transition to contactless concerts, despite the tremendous damage due to

K-pop fans from all over the world fawning over young K-pop idols is one thing. Fans flocking to online registration for a chance to see a 73-year-old trot singer’s concert is another. Upon the announcement of “Emperor of Trot” Na Hoon-a’s first online-streamed concert, fans around the globe filled out application forms explaining why they had to be chosen as part of the audience for the special show. Local broadcaster KBS 2TV’s “2020 Chuseok Grand Plan Rep

Damwon Gaming hoisted the LCK trophy for the first time in its history, sweeping DRX in three games in the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea Summer Finals on Saturday. Matches were played online from each team‘s own facility because of COVID-19. Although most analysts and experts had predicted Damwon Gaming’s victory with the team having had an undefeated run in the second half of the regular season, Damwon’s performance Saturday exceeded expectations and was a loud state

COVID-19 has changed many aspects of our daily lives, and one of the industries most heavily affected is the hospitality industry. With government policies changing weekly as the number of coronavirus cases fluctuates, hotels are keeping a close eye on the situation. In the midst of this crisis, Kang Ah-hyun, commercial director of Millennium Hilton Seoul, is attempting to find an opportunity in tough times. As the hotel’s commercial director, Kang is responsible for the hotel’s re

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released standard contracts for esports on Thursday, addressing last year‘s online petition that requested action for fair contracts between players and organizations. Although South Korea has been hailed as the birthplace of esports with the Starcraft league established in 1999, there has been few mechanisms to protect esports players from unfair contracts.  The case of Kanavi, the current jungler for LPL’s JD Gaming, last year bro

With only the finals on Saturday remaining for League of Legends Champions Korea Summer before the World Championships, Riot Games announced the winners of the LCK Awards on Thursday. The LCK Awards was launched this spring in order to commend players and coaching staff that showed an outstanding performance during the season. The six awards are All-LCK Team, Young Player, Best Coach, Regular Season MVP, Player Of the Split and Finals MVP. Player Of the Split went to Gen. G’s Bdd

‘Starry Starry Night’ Package at Seoul Dragon City Hotel-plex Hotel Seoul Dragon City offers the Starry Starry Night package for couples hoping to spend a romantic staycation. The package includes a one-night stay, Fantini Gran Cuvee Bianco Swarovski (Italian sparkling wine) with a crystal embedded on the bottle and dessert as room service. Only 10,000 bottles of this particular wine are produced each year. The package starts at 236,500 won for the Grand Mercure Ambassador Hotel

Virtual K-pop group K/DA released the group’s new single, “The Baddest,” on Aug. 28, with the first EP to be released later this year. K/DA debuted at the opening of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship finals in Incheon, when four artists performed with their characters through hologram representations. K/DA consists of four female LoL characters -- Ahri, Kai’Sa, Evelynn and Akali -- who are each voiced by different artists. The group name derives from a stati