The East Timor Ambassador to Korea Joao Viegas Carrascalao has died of a heart attack, embassy officials said Tuesday. He was 66.Staff at the embassy said that he died on Saturday at 1:40 a.m. at his home in East Timor, to which he had recently returned.He was then pronounced dead at the Guido Valadares National Hospital. He had been suffering ill health for some time.“The main reason for his death was a heart attack. He was in a dire, dire physical situation and he had been struggling because o

It was inappropriate for Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to demand Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak remove the “Peace Statue” during their summit late last year, said Shin Kak-soo, South Korean ambassador to Japan.The monument was installed by Korean civic groups in December in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to remind Japan of the Korean women forced into sex slavery during World War II.“It is true that the Japanese government keeps asking Seoul to remove the statue,” Shin told repo

The Korean Wave, or hallyu, has hit Latin America, where an increasing number of people are becoming more interested in Korean dramas, K-pop and Korean classical musicians, the Korean ambassadors to Peru and Argentina said.“In Peru, the Korean Wave is literally explosive. While the state-run TV’s viewer ratings hit an average 2 percent, channels that air hallyu content such as K-dramas, sitcoms and films, mark 6 percent viewer ratings on average,” said Park Hee-kwon, ambassador to Peru, told The

Minister appeals Seoul to ‘reconsider’ travel ban on Iraq for better business tiesIraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who visited Seoul last week, said his country was likely to buy Korea’s T-50 training jets and the possibility of the sale is “positive.”His remarks came after Korea Aerospace Industries, the country’s sole aircraft maker, failed to sell its homegrown T-50 supersonic trainer jets to Israel a few days ago. The Israeli government chose the Italian-made M-346 instead.“We’re looki

Indian classical dance performances have wowed Korean audiences in Seoul and Busan. Award-winning performer Kavita Dwibedi executed the classical Indian Odissi dance recitals at Seoul’s Baekam Art Hall and Busan’s Cinema Center Sky Hall last week. Dwibedi, who is head of the Odissi Academy in New Delhi was brought up in a family of traditional arts practitioners and has performed all over the world. Odissi originated as a temple dance in eastern India where it was performed as an act of religiou

International authors will discuss setting up a group for North Korean writers in exile at a meeting in Gyeongju this year. Vice president of the Czech PEN Club Marketa Hejkalova said that issues of human rights and freedom of expression in North Korea would be discussed at the PEN International world congress this September.The acclaimed novelist came to Korea as part of a delegation of writers in preparation for the congress of some 300 authors from 114 countries, including Nobel literary priz

The U.S. ambassador to Korea has stated that the trade pact between the two countries is “vitally important” to both economies amid calls from the Korean opposition party to repeal it. The Democratic Unity Party is calling for the free trade agreement to be revised, saying the deal contains elements that could damage the Korean economy. But ambassador Sung Kim called the KORUS FTA a milestone in diplomatic relations and said that both sides were working to review the regulations as quickly as po

The president of an organization for foreigners’ welfare has called on diplomats and other foreigners here to speak up on their bugbears about Korea. Shin Kwang-yul organizes diplomatic conferences on migrants’ welfare, publishes a newspaper promoting multicultural society and runs a migrant workers’ welfare center. But he said foreigners must be honest about the elements of Korean life they dislike to help the country to further develop. “The big mistake is that the people from America and othe