Gwangju is reshaping itself into the cultural hub of Asia. Korea launched a 5.3 trillion won ($4.8 billion) project -- the single largest cultural project in modern Korean history -- in 2004 to turn the city into a hub by 2023.The state project began with the late President Roh Moo-hyun’s election pledge in 2002 to develop both cities and provinces in a balanced way. Later, a special law was legislated to carry out the pledge. The project envisions Gwangju as a platform on which Asian countries

South Korea won the team gold medal in the men's 10-meter air pistol event at the Summer Universiade in Gwangju on Friday.   Park Dae-hun, Jang Ha-lim and Seo Jin-sung earned a combined 1,722 points at the final held at the Naju Jeollanamdo Shooting Range, near the main host city Gwangju.   Mongolia finished second with 1,714 points, and Russia came next with 1,711 points.   With this, Park became South Korea's third triple gold medalist after archers Lee Seung-yun and Kim Jong-ho at the ongoing

After sweeping up eight out of 18 gold medals up for grabs in judo at the Summer Universiade, South Korea will look to do an encore at next year's Summer Olympics, the team's head coach said Thursday.Suh Joung-bok oversaw the team that also grabbed five silver and two bronze medals in Gwangju. Saying the Universiade was a "prelude" to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Suh expressed confidence that South Korea will also excel at the Summer Games."All the work we put in paid off here," he said.

The Gwangju Universiade marks the biggest sporting event for college athletes and has drawn the largest number of athletes and officials, said Kim Hwang-sik, co-chairman of the Gwangju Universiade Organizing Committee (GUOC).“We set a milestone of hosting the biggest-ever Universiade. Some 13,000 athletes and officials have come to Gwangju for the games. The number of delegates has surpassed that of the 2013 Kazan Universiade, which drew 11,759 participants,” Kim said in an interview with the Gw

The Gwangju Universiade opening ceremony was designed to unite young people from all over the world and encourage them to work for peace and harmony, said Park Myung-sung, chief director of the event’s opening ceremony.Attended by more than 13,000 university students from 148 countries, the event was held under the slogan of “U are Shining.” The official theme of the opening ceremony epitomizes the spirit of the youth and brings hopes and passion to young people.“(Through the theme) I wanted to

Gwangju has been called the hometown of art in the Republic of Korea from old times. A number of noted artists, musicians and writers came from Gwangju or settled in the city.Master artist of Korean painting Heo Baek-ryeon, Korea’s western painting pioneer Oh Chi-ho, pansori (Korean musical storytelling) maestro Im Bang-wool and lyric poet Kim Yong-chul are among them.Heo Baek-ryeonHeo Baek-ryeon (1890-1977) painted landscapes of Gwangju in the Chinese painting style of Southern School. The scho

South Korean archer Ki Bo-bae won the gold medal in the women's individual recurve event at the Summer Universiade on Wednesday.Ki prevailed in the all-South Korean final over Choi Mi-sun by the set score of 6-5 after a shoot-off at Gwangju International Archery Center, earning her second gold medal of the day and giving South Korea four recurve titles.Ki had earlier helped the mixed teams win the gold. The men's team defeated Chinese Taipei for another gold, while Lee Seung-yun captured the men

South Korean shooter Han Ji-young picked up the gold medal in the women's 10-meter air pistol event at the Summer Universiade on Wednesday.It was Han's second gold of the competition at Naju Jeollanamdo Shooting Range in Naju, South Jeolla Province, southwest of the main host Gwangju. She'd earlier won the team gold medal in the 25m pistol.South Korea has now bagged five gold medals from shooting. (Yonhap)

The sparring rounds in taekwondo at the Summer Universiade will begin Thursday, with host South Korea eyeing multiple medals in its traditional martial art from the first day of competition.Four fighters will be in action: Kim Dae-ik and Ryu Dae-han in men's under-54-kilogram and in 68㎏, respectively, and Yu Su-yeon and Kim So-hee in women's under-46㎏ and under-57㎏, respectively.Matches will start at 9 a.m. at Chosun University Gymnasium in Gwangju.There are 18 medals up for grabs in the sparrin

South Korean Bae Jong-beom won the gold medal in men's individual poomsae event at the Summer Universiade on Tuesday.Bae scored 7.930 points in the demonstrative form of the martial art, while Mahdi Jamali Fashi of Iran earned 7.640 points for the silver. Maulana Haidir of Indonesia received the bronze with 7.5909 points.It was South Korea's first taekwondo gold medal at this Universiade. (Yonhap)

South Korea captured three compound archery gold medals at the Summer Universiade on Tuesday.First, it was the men's team over Mexico 230-229 for the title at Gwangju International Archery Center. Then the mixed team followed suit by beating India 157-150. In the men's individual final between two South Koreans, Kim Jong-ho defeated Kim Tae-yoon 147-145 for his third gold medal of the day.In the men's team competition, Kim Tae-yoon, Yang Young-ho and Kim Jong-ho rallied for the narrow victory, c