Six leading entertainers including music producer Lee Soo-man and veteran singer Ha Chun-hwa were awarded cultural medals by the Korean government on Monday in recognition of their contribution to Korean pop culture. Twenty-seven others received commendations by President Lee Myung-bak, the prime minister and culture minister during the award ceremony held at the Korean Pop Concert Hall at Seoul Olympic Park.The Culture Ministry and the state-run Korea Creative Content Agency declared the fourth

Regardless of ethical issues, blogging is not just about time-killing or communication these days. For some, blogs are an easy road to money. Earlier this month, seven “power bloggers” were fined by the Fair Trade Commission for promoting sales of certain products without informing consumers they were receiving commission from companies. The term power blogger was first used by Naver, a major portal site here, which chose and listed 786 of the most popular and interesting blogs. Moon Sung-sil, a

A touch of sentimental Christmas Kim Dong-Ryul“kimdongrYULE”(Loen Entertainment) He’s finally back. After four years of silence -- which felt like forever for his faithful fans -- singer-songwriter Kim Dong-ryul has returned with a Christmas album that feels happy, sad, lonely and fulfilling all at the same time. Skillfully matching his English name with “Yule,” Kim has created his album with songs he wrote as far back as 13 years ago. Title track “Replay,” written in 2000, shows off what fans w

Heritage is not the past, but a resource of the future, and so maintaining continuity between the past and the present is important when it comes to urban development, a visiting UNESCO official said Thursday. “Continuity, here, means understanding the past,” Assistance Director-General for Culture of UNESCO Francesco Bandarin told The Korea Herald. “Changes are forced by history … but it is important not to forget that nonphysical values do not change even if the physical appearance changes.” B

President Lee Myung-bak named Kwak Young-jin, his former secretary for cultural affairs, as the new deputy minister of culture, sports and tourism Wednesday. Kwak, 54, formerly served as the director-general of the Arts Bureau and the Planning Bureau at the Culture Ministry.Born in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, Kwak graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. (hayney@heraldm.com)

The Korean Culture and Information Service published “K-Pop: A New Force in Pop Music” this week amid growing K-pop fever overseas. The 93-page pocket book, the second volume in the K-Culture series, explains in detail the history of K-pop, how K-pop began to make a splash overseas, where the phenomenon might be headed and also introduces some of the most popular K-pop artists. Korean pop was strongly influenced by Western pop music, diversifying through many stages of copying, translation and i

YG, third entertainment agency to be listed on KOSDAQ,attracts 3.6 trillion won in IPOThe recent success of YG Entertainment and other listed Korean entertainment agencies in the stock market is an indicator of the growing influence of Korean pop music at home and abroad, analysts said Wednesday. YG Entertainment drew more than 3 trillion won in its initial public offering this week, receiving bids for 561 times the number of shares allocated to individual investors.The company, which produced p

Simon Rattle anticipates intensity, depth in audiences during Berlin Phil’s Seoul performanceWhile preparing two very different symphonies by two very dissimilar composers, maestro Simon Rattle hoped to tell just one story; a story in which the audience and the orchestra become one and feel the same air. “On stage, you feel the atmosphere immediately. It is not the matter of sound, but the matter of the intensity of the audience,” Rattle, the star conductor of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, said

South Korea on Thursday named singer Park Jung-hyun and actor Jang Geun-seok honorary ambassadors for a nuclear security summit in Seoul next year, the Foreign Ministry said. Park and Jang, along with children’s TV entertainers Jin Ji-hee and Wang Seok-hyun, will be making “a big contribution to promoting” the two-day summit that will open on March 26 next year, the ministry said in a statement. Leaders from some 50 countries, including the U.S., China, Britain, Japan and Russia, will be attendi

Seoul intensifies watch on pro-North websites, voting of overseas residentsElated by former civic activist and lawyer Park Won-soon’s recent election as Seoul mayor, North Korea is gearing up its offensive to influence the upcoming high-profile elections in South Korea through IT technology and refined tactics, observers in Seoul say. The communist North Korea, which is technically still at war with the South, has for years tried to wield influence over the presidential and parliamentary electi