For Barry Smith and his wife Yvette Park, the chance to do something for society came from a chance encounter.Their new group Giving Back teaches English to about 50 disadvantaged children at a child care center in Mapo, Seoul. Smith’s brother-in-law works for a local politician, who suggested the project to his wife after meeting her. “It was a bit overwhelming to begin with especially as most of us already have full-time jobs, but we have some great volunteers who have pulled together well to

Expat bands will gather for a fund-raiser Saturday to help Nepalese women and children learn art and use craft to support themselves.Bluesnake, Magna Fall, Red Cha Cha, and Samba Mamba will be performing at the “Love Music” event, in aid of Global Arts Therapy, a new charity to be led by English teacher Samantha Thomas. Thomas, who is based in Suji, Gyeonggi Province, has experience in teaching art to disadvantaged children at programs in her native Iowa and the Czech Republic over the past seve

The Korean edition of famed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s latest novel “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” topped the local bestseller lists on the day of its release Monday. The novel tells the story of a 30-something man named Tsukuru Tazaki, who was suddenly cut off by his close friends during high school. After being terminally depressed for many years, he now makes a living designing train stations at a railway company in Tokyo. He one day decides to visit his once be

Joseon-period painter, calligrapher, poet and critic famed for introducing Western painting methods

Actress Kim Ko-eun from the 2012 film “Eungyo (A Muse)” received the “Star Asia Rising Star” award on Saturday at the New York Asian Film Festival 2013, held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. “Thank you so much for inviting me all the way here to the New York Asian Film Festival and giving me this honorable award. I’ll come back with good work,” Kim stated after receiving the award. Kim debuted last year in “Eungyo,” winning several awards, including those at Busan Film Critics

Footballer Ki Sung-yueng and actress Han Hye-jin have tied the knot at the Intercontinental Hotel in southern Seoul, Monday.Both the groom and the bride said with one voice, “It’s the happiest day of my life,” at the press conference before the wedding ceremony.After the wedding, the Swansea City midfielder will head to the United Kingdom for a team training while the actress, 32, will stay in Korea until the end of July to finish her agenda. The newlyweds will set up homes in Korea and the U.

NEW YORK (AP) ― Gray dust blankets everything in the subterranean halls of the unfinished National September 11 Memorial & Museum. But while the powder may look ominously like the ash that covered lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks, this time it is a product of rebirth, not destruction.After a yearlong construction shutdown because of a funding dispute, and additional months of cleanup following a shocking flood caused by Superstorm Sandy, work has been racing ahead again at the museum,