Franz Beckenbauer, a German football legend, appreciated the help of Chung Mong-joon, a former FIFA vice president from South Korea, in Germany’s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup. Beckenbauer, a two-time European Footballer of the Year, visited Seoul on Monday to attend an award ceremony for Chung. Chung received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit from the German government later Monday. It’s the highest order a foreigner can receive from Germany, and the South Korean legislato

Kim Kwang-wook, CEO of Novotel Ambassador, has been appointed the new CEO of Grand Ambassador Seoul Hotel, the hotel announced Monday. Kim is a hotelier with 34 years of experience in hotel management. “With a wealth of experience in this business and the executives and staff members, I will try to make the Grand Ambassador Seoul a world-class hotel brand,” Kim said. Kim’s career in hotel management began in 1979 as he joined The Shilla. He went to serve in various positions at The Shilla and at

  By Park Sui, Intern reporterA nonfiction companion to a Joseon scholar’s famous travelogue, “Jehol Diary is a Fiction,” attempts to overturn the traditional interpretation of the centuries-old book. It claims that “Jehol Diary” (‘Yeolha Ilgi’ in Korean) is not a fact-based travelogue but a first-person narrative novel.“Previous studies, discussions and education on ‘Yeolha Ilgi’ are totally misguided,” Oh Soon-jeong, the author of the book, told The Korea Herald. The 51-year-old author, a vete

Music, myths and rumors to be explored in 200th anniversary year

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― A new exhibit created by a University of Pennsylvania professor and host of a popular public television show examines how wartime propaganda has been used to motivate oppressed populations to risk their lives for homelands that considered them second-class citizens.“Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster,” opens Sunday and continues until March 2 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Lectures, film screenings and other progra

LONDON (AP) ― It’s the collection that “Cats” built.A multimillion-dollar trove of works by artists including J.M.W. Turner, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Winston Churchill that were owned by poet T.S. Eliot’s widow will be sold in London later this year, Christie’s auction house announced Friday.Valerie Eliot, who died in November aged 86, bought the artworks with royalties from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats,” which was based on her husband’s volume of light verse “Old Possum’s Bo

Publisher Hank Kim talks about devoting his life to publishing English-language books about Korea

Since the early 2000s, Seoul Selection has published about 70 English-language books on Korea and its culture. Here are some of the picks from their books.“The Voices of Heaven” by Maija Rhee DevineOne of the latest publications by Seoul Selection, “The Voices of Heaven” is an engaging account of the Korean War (1950-1953) from a young girl’s perspective. Korean-born American Maija Rhee Devine, wrote the novel based on her real-life experience going through the war, as well as her family secrets

Located within the Demilitarized Zone, the Joint Security Area is the most forward location that can be visited by people in South Korea. It sits in the western portion of the DMZ on the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two Koreas according to the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953. Also often referred to as a “Truce Village,” Panmunjeom, or the JSA as it is formally called, is where South and North Korean troops stand on guard, staring at one another from a distance. Although this yea

Theater“La Dame au Violoncelle”: TV actress Lee Jae-eun, who started her career as a child actress, is making a comeback with a play written by French playwright Guy Foissy. Titled “La Dame au Violoncelle (The Lady of the Cello),” the drama tells the story of an unhappy, depressed woman who is accused of murdering her husband. It is said to be a story of “the quest for happiness.” The play runs from June 5-30 at You-Theater in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. Tickets range from 20,000 won to 30,0