Gil Hwan-young was inaugurated as the 20th president of state-run terrestrial broadcasting network KBS on Friday. Gil, who succeeded Kim In-kyu, stressed that he would seek to raise TV license fees in order to stabilize the firm’s fiscal status. “The fee raise will be used to invest in digitalizing all programs,” Gil said in his speech at the inauguration ceremony. The ceremony was held three earlier than announced. Gil’s term expires on Nov. 23, 2015.By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)

Creative smartphone applications developed by college students for a class project are drawing attention from local governments and investment companies.Undergraduate students who attend the business English class by Konkuk University international affairs professor Min Byeong-cheol are to present their unique smartphone application projects next week. Songpa-gu Office and several venture investment companies will help evaluate the projects.In the class, eight groups of students established virt

An oil painting by Ko Hei-tong (1886-1965), the first Western-style painter in Korea, will be unveiled to the public for the first time Saturday at his former residence. The painting, a portrait of poet Ree Sang-hwa (1901-1943), was the fourth oil painting created by Ko, who usually specialized in a painting style that mixed Korean traditional ink and western water colors. On the back of the painting reads, “1931 Ko Hei Tong, to his friend Ree.”The exhibition will run until Jan. 20 at Ko’s resid

The Korea Tourism Organization filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against the CEO of Incheon International Airport Corporation for damaging its name by making false remarks about the management of its airport duty free shops. “The Incheon Airport CEO Lee Chae-wook dishonored the KTO by calling us a ‘company suffering deep losses from the duty free shop business and an organization that does nothing but waste taxpayers’ money,’” said KTO CEO Lee Charm at a press conference on Thursday morning. 

In order to live a healthy life, we must maintain a healthy body weight. Excessive gain or loss in weight changes the body composition, resulting in decreased physical ability of the body such as a loss of desire, weakened immunity and physical retardation. This results in a decreased quality of life. The development of the food industry and the mass media has led to a culture where one can easily access tasty, fatty foods. At the same time, society demands an excessively slim figure, resulting

Number of people showing early symptoms of dementia both young and old increasing rapidly, reports say

Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and StyleConsultant Editor Susan Brown with the Smithsonian, Institution (DK Publishing, New York)It’s always fun to find a book that is one-stop holiday shopping for both newcomer and expert, especially when the book is full of history and photographs.Susan Brown, a consultant with the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, edited the coffee-table book “Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style.” For anyone with a casual intere

Dear LifeBy Alice Munro (Knopf)She is regularly paired with Chekhov. In 2004, Jonathan Franzen suggested she might be “the best fiction writer now working in North America.” In his introduction to the 2012 edition of “The Best American Short Stories,” Tom Perrotta states that she “looms over this year’s collection” as the “master” who has “expanded our sense of what stories can do.”All true, and all reinforced by the just-published “Dear Life,” Alice Munro’s 13th collection of short stories.But

In the exhaustive and at times exhausting new biography “Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson,” journalist Randall Sullivan presents a radical new theory concerning one of the most heavily scrutinized public figures of the last half a century. Namely, that the man revered worldwide as the “King of Pop” could not possibly have been a child molester. The book posits that Jackson resisted sex for all his days and died in 2009 a 50-year-old virgin.To support that tough-t

Book offers ideas for people in capital to rediscover their city

For lovers of traditional Korean art, an exhibition that opened last week at a gallery in Seoul’s Insadong street may give as much joy as a gift set of carefully selected traditional Korean craft items.Titled “An Old is A New,” the exhibition at the ARA Art Center has an extensive range of craftworks, from small metalwork pieces to furniture and roof tiles.It features some 500 works by 180 traditional artisans, including those designated as among the country’s “important intangible cultural heri

ROME (AFP) ― British director Ken Loach on Wednesday turned down a prize from a festival organized by Italy’s National Museum of Cinema in Turin in protest over the rights of cleaners and security guards at the museum.“It is with great regret that I am obliged to turn down the prize assigned to me by the Turin film festival,” the internationally acclaimed filmmaker said in a letter to organizers that was sent by his Italian distributors, BIM Film.Loach, who is well known for his social activism

Shinhan Financial Group will support the elderly in the low-income class to receive eyelid surgery. The group vowed on Tuesday to support the full cost for the operations for 100 elderly people aged above 60 who receive a substantial government subsidy for living expenses or are in financial need, as a year-end gift. The promising ceremony, held at the group’s headquarters in central Seoul, was attended by the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons head Lee Sang-mok, Korea Association of Senior