Actor Shin Hyun-joon is to be married in May. Shin, 44, made the announcement of his engagement on the KBS program “Entertainment Weekly.” Shin’s bride-to-be, whom he met about six months ago, is a Korean-American music graduate student who is 12 years his junior. He explained that she was born in Korea but has been studying in the U.S. since she was a kid. He also said she will stay in Korea for a short while after the wedding but must eventually return to the U.S. The two will marry on May 26

The founding director and current president of the Gwangju Biennale Lee Yong-woo is now president of the International Biennial Association. On March 15, the IBA held a conference meeting in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where Lee was appointed to serve a three-year term as the association’s president.The International Biennial Association was established last October at the first World Biennial Forum that took place in Gwangju. The forum saw an initiative to link 150 bienniales around the worl

Kim Jung-chul, 25, a senior-year student at the department of international tourism of Dong-A University in Busan, has completed the Atacama Crossing, one of the world’s four toughest ultramarathons. The extreme race was held in Chile’s Atacama Desert, recognized as the driest place on earth ― it is 50 times more arid than California’s Death Valley ― for a week, from March 2-9. Competitors ran or walked 250 kilometers, carrying items including food, a compass, sleeping gear and clothes.The Ataca

A mobile app listing contact details of all Korean-run businesses in the world is the talk of Silicon Valley. Developed by Korean-American James Kim, the app lists the location and contact numbers of Korean-run restaurants, lodgings, clinics, shops, tourist sites, religious facilities, embassies, Korean community groups and many other businesses.  Currently searchable on the app are about 66,000 Korean-run businesses, including 6,900 restaurants. The U.S. takes the lion’s share with 58,000 busin

Lee Dong-woo, a former Cheong Wa Dae senior secretary for administrative affairs, has been appointed as secretary-general of Gyeongju Culture Expo. The Gyeongju Culture Expo organizing committee announced on Monday that Lee’s inauguration as the new secretary-general of the organization will take place Tuesday.  In his new post, Lee will oversee the upcoming “Istanbul-Gyeongju World Culture Expo 2013” which will be held Aug. 31 to Sept. 22 in Istanbul.“The Istanbul-Gyeongju World Culture Expo wi

A 48-year-old former veterinarian in Australia has chanced a career change to become a pole dance instructor, according to News Local.After working as a vet for 20 years, Sarah Thompson was inspired to take a different career path after watching a pole dancing performance video of a nurse colleague. Thompson started to reach out to other young women who wanted to learn pole dancing. A group of eight students, most of whom were her friends, soon grew to an average of 250 students a term.Thompson’

A children’s book published by a Korean company won the Ragazzi Award at Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the top award of the prestigious annual event in Bologna, Italy. The picture book, titled “Eyes,” written and illustrated by Polish author Iwon Chmielewska and translated into Korean, will be announced the winner in the fiction category of the 50th Bologna Children’s Book Fair next week, according to Changbi Publishers.  The jury of the award said the book “creates an indissoluble bond between

Change in bureaucratic mindset necessary to encourage risk taking in creative industry, says state agency CEO Hong Sang-pyo

President Park Geun-hye appointed Korea University professor Byun Young-sub as the first female head of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea. The Ewha Womans University graduate was appointed as a professor of archaeology and art history at Korea University in 1991. A specialist in Joseon-period painter Pyoam Kang Se-hwang, Byun has served as president of the Korean Association of Art History Education and also as head of the Art History Association of Korea.By Julie Jackson (juliejacks

Former Rep. Park Jin has been named a chair professor for the Graduate School of International and Area Studies of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, the school said Sunday.Park had represented the district of Jongno in Seoul for more than 12 years before the end of his third term in 2012 on the ticket of then-Grand National Party, predecessor to the Saenuri Party.Park graduated from Seoul National University with a bachelor’s degree in law, and received a master’s degree in public administra

A large billboard promoting Dokdo has been set up on a parking lot of AT&T Park in San Francisco, California, the venue of the final round of the third World Baseball Classic. The board, set up on Friday night, carries the headline, “Welcome to Dokdo, Korea, East Sea,” against the panoramic aerial image of the easternmost Korean islets. On the bottom right, the phrase “Dokdo Belongs to Korea!” appears. The billboard targets spectators of the WBC games to be held in the ballpark from March 17-19.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― A U.S. judge cleared the way Friday for a Filipina former nanny of Sharon Stone to go to trial against the U.S. actress for wrongful dismissal and harassment, including racist abuse.Lawyers for Erlinda Elemen, who worked as a live-in nanny for the “Basic Instinct” star until she was sacked in 2011, announced last year that she was suing the actress. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel ruled that Elemen’s lawyers had provided enough evidence to support her allegation

‘Little France of Seoul’ holds on to the ambience of French village, sort of