Former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will be dispatched to Lima, Peru, by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to advise its municipal administration.On Friday, Oh completed the overseas aid agency’s weeklong education course for advisers being sent to developing countries. The agency launched the advisory group in a ceremony at the training center for World Friends Korea in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. In the event, he received a certificate of course completion from KOICA president Kim

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The Brookings Institution, a top U.S. think tank, is expected to pick Katharine Moon, a female Korean-American professor, as its first Korea studies chair, an informed source said Thursday.The Washington-based institution is preparing to launch a chair position for Korean studies in partnership with the Korea Foundation and SK Group, a South Korean conglomerate.“Brookings has been in search for a figure to lead the program. It has drawn up a short list of Korea experts

PARIS (AFP) ― British-born singer-actress Jane Birkin was awarded the Japanese foreign ministry’s top honor Thursday for her support to Japan’s relief work after the devastating 2011 earthquake.Best known as the muse of iconic French singer Serge Gainsbourg who wrote several of her albums, Birkin rushed to Japan after the 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing monster tsunami.“We were struck by her immediate reaction to the earthquake,” said Japanese ambassador Yoichi Suzuki, after awarding her the Jap

Office worker Mr. A often felt stiffness of the neck, a heavy sensation on the shoulders as if burdened by a rock, headache, eye pain, and weakness and numbness of his arms after office work, computer work, reading on the couch or driving for a long time. He decided to see a doctor because he was worried that it could be a stroke, cervical disk prolapse, or some other serious condition. After many tests and examinations he asked the doctor what the diagnosis was.The doctor told him that there we

The National Theater Company of Korea has released a compilation of three Korean plays translated into English, titled “Three Plays.” The 150-page book features the well-loved plays Bae Sam-sik’s “March Snow,” Ko Yeon-ok’s “The Master Has Arrived,” and Park Geun-hung’s “Red Bus.” The book also contains commentaries written about the writers’ lives and works by honorary professor at Pennsylvania State University, Richard Nicole. The National Theater Company of Korea has sent copies to more than 1

The Naju National Museum, the 13th central government-funded museum under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, will open to the public on Nov. 22. Located about a 20 minutes’ drive from central Naju, South Jeolla Province, in a rural setting, the museum will be a place where the past meets the present and future of the Yeongsangang River area, said Park Jung-hwan, director of the museum.“In the past, we built national museums in city centers, but this time we are reenacting history: The

Several years ago, a cookbook editor friend called asking my advice on whether she should publish Jacques Pepin’s autobiography. Pepin is one of my heroes in food, I told her, but I’d pass on the book ― all chef biographies tend to follow the same story arc, there’s not a lot new to be said.Wisely she ignored me, and though “The Apprentice” turned out just as I predicted plot-wise, it was one of the bestselling cookbooks of the year. I learned two lessons from that incident: I’m a lot better off

In her poignant 2010 essay “What I Will Miss,” which appears on the last page of a new omnibus, “The Most of Nora Ephron” (Alfred A. Knopf.), the author listed 31 items ― bacon, Paris and “the concept of waffles,” among them. There’s one thing she left out, I would venture to guess: writing.Though it was kept secret from all but her immediate circle, Ephron knew she was terminally ill with leukemia for six years before her death in 2012. If anything, this increased her productivity. According to

Star Wars: FramesSelected by George Lucas(Abrams, NY)Who hasn’t in their lifetime wanted to study a moment in a film, to pause the action and survey what is going on without fear that the hold suddenly will end?For fans of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” saga, that moment has finally come with “Star Wars: Frames.” It is all six of the “Star Wars” trilogy frame-by-frame.In 2011, “Frames” was issued in a very limited edition of six volumes, and came in a hard case adorned with a Darth Vader medallion. I

Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War IIBy Wil S. Hylton (Riverhead)The official story was that the war in the Pacific claimed Jimmie Doyle on Sept. 1, 1944, when Japanese antiaircraft fire brought down his B-24 Liberator during a bombing mission over the tiny Palau archipelago. Neither the plane nor a single member of the 11-man crew was ever found. But there was always a second, darker story, and it haunted Jimmie’s son, Tommy, for most of his life.Tommy’s uncles bel

Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na has donated $100,000 to a relief organization for the typhoon-hit Philippines.The Korean Committee for UNICEF said Thursday that Kim made the donation on Wednesday. “Through the Korean Committee for UNICEF, Kim has sponsored underprivileged and sick children at the end of each year. This year, she informed us that she wanted to help children affected by the powerful typhoon in the Philippines,” it said. “Her donation will be used to supply drinking water