| Korea's Saemangeum Seawall has been certified by the Guinness World Records as the longest man-made dike in the world. Located in North Jeolla Province, the 33.9 kilometer barrier connecting the counties of Gunsan and Buan officially finished construction in April. With more than 200 people on hand, a ceremony was held on Monday to congratulate the formal recognition. And now, Korea's construction technology has been recognized internationally for being ahead of its time. [Interview : ] "Korea's construction technology has wowed the world. This is what the Rural Community Corporation has done. I believe this will act as a stepping stone for us to export our technology to other nations." Hoping the dike can become an economic highway to reach the world beyond Northeast Asia, the Korean government spent 2.9 trillion won, or some 2.5 billion US dollars, in constructing the record-setting barrier, also known as "the Great Wall on the Sea." It has now officially replaced the 32.5-kilometers-long Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands as the longest on Earth. [Interview : ] "The former longest seawall was actually achieved by the Netherlands. And previously, it was the longest dike. But, Saemangeum has actually broken the record by 1.4 kilometers longer than them." Since its completion, the Saemangeum dike has attracted over 3.5 million visitors. And from this point on, even more visitors from both home and abroad are expected to flock to this one-of-a-kind structure. Moreover, expectations are high that Saemangeum could further accelerate the region's various development projects. source: Arirang news |
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Saemangeum Certified as World's Longest Seawall by Guinness
Monday, 2 August 2010
Gangjin invites you to explore beautiful Goryeo celadon
Turning a potter’s wheel to shape porcelain is not something we can only see in a movie or on TV.
During the nine-day festival, more than 100 events in five categories -- exhibition, performance, experience, project and sideline events -- will be held under the theme of "Earth, Fire and Human" around Goryeo Celadon Porcelain kilns in Gangjin County, where tourists can learn the art of making of modern-day pottery and view special exhibitions of high quality celadon works. (Left: five-meter tall pieces of celadon porcelain, photo courtesy of Gangjin Celadon Porcelain Festival)
To celebrate the opening of the event, about 100 ships will pass in a flotilla through Gangjin Bay on Aug. 7 at 5 p.m., creating a spectacular scene visible from the beach. The event venue will be decorated with celadon-shaped LED lights and five-meter tall pieces of celadon porcelain. A parade such as might be seen during the Goryeo Dynasty (A.D. 918-1392) will be held every day, with marchers wearing traditional Goryeo costumes.
Visitors will have a chance to make their own piece of celadon pottery on a potter’s wheel, and also printing, coiling and sculpturing clay. This is just one of over 30 different and unique hands-on experience activities available during the festival, so take advantage of this opportunity.
Another attraction is shopping. Those who would love to purchase a piece for their collection can obtain high quality celadon at a 20-percent discounted price during the event period.
Gangjin, also known as "Tamjin" in the past, is known as the home of Goryeo celadon, one of Korea’s most glorious cultural assets. For about 600 years from the 9th century, this was the manufacturing site of 90 percent of Goryeo earthenware, some of which has since been designated as national treasures. Over 200 out of Korea’s 400 historical traditional kilns are located around this area. Goryeo celadon is famous for its mystical gray-blue color and unique shape.
Last year, the Gangjin Celadon Porcelain Festival was selected as one of Korea’s best festivals by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the ninth year in a row.
For more information about the festival, click here (Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese) to visit the festival homepage. More travel information is available by calling Korea Travel Phone: Call+82-64-1330 (Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese available around the clock).
source:korea.net
Spending your summer with green tourism
In Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province, you will find “pyeonghwa eui dam”, literally means dam of peace. The county is trying to make the region a tourism site under the two themes of “green” and “peace.”
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A 37.5-ton-bell is located in the park south of the dam (2nd photo). Don’t be surprised if you see a jet, tanks and other military facilities in the waterside area. They are for display only. Those items have been put together to form a “Peace Art Park”.
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Not everyone is allowed to enter the northern side of the dam. You have to get permission from the Korean military prior to your visit. The upper region of the Hwacheon dam is part of Bukhan River and also Paro-ho Lake. You won’t see a car there.
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Bisugumi Village (l) and Beopseonggol Stream (r)
source:Korea.net
Sunday, 1 August 2010
India, Korea take initiative in science
The ambassador of India is confident that 2010 will be a banner year for India and Korea.
"Korea and India have a long-term comprehensive partnership. It is more than an FTA and it also opens a way for investment," said India Ambassador Skand Tayal.
With the enforcement of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the Program of Cooperation in Science & Technology agreement that came into effect last month, both countries have now entered a new phase of cooperation.
These agreements are also expected to help overcome the challenges both countries have been facing in making further developments in science and technology.
"Korea is very strong in manufacturing and engineering hardware. India is strong in innovation and information technology software," said Tayal. "We can both work together to develop new technologies.
"For India, we have to learn how to transfer technologies from the laboratory to a commercial application. For this, we want to learn from Korea."
As part of this initiative, the Indian Embassy has started a partnership with Daedok Innopolis, in Daejeon.
The deal will bring Indian experts together with their local counterparts in a regional cluster of scientific research, development and businesses.
Another goal of this partnership is to develop renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, green growth technology and nuclear technology, which are important for both countries in preventing energy shortages in the global warming era.
For this partnership, the Korean government will allocate 5 percent of its gross domestic product into science research by 2012 and India`s government will encourage research in new sources of energy under their National Solar Mission.
The ambassador, who came here in 2008, still has high hopes for what he can accomplish in Korea.
"My vision is for real friendship and partnership - partnership in peace and prosperity, peace in the region, peace in governance, in different political issues, scientific technology, cultural and educational sectors," said the ambassador.
He also urged for a deeper mutual understanding between the people from both countries.
In terms of friendship, the India-Korea relationship dates back as far as Korea`s Gaya Kingdom, when an Indian princess from Ayodhya, known to Koreans as Huh Hwang-ok, came to marry King Kim Su-ro in 84 A.D.
Since the first consular relations in 1962, India and Korea have shown impressive results in terms of commercial trade, reaching $15.5 billion in bilateral trade by the end of 2008, according to the Korea International Trade Association.
Also, relations in the cultural and educational sectors have grown steadily in the past 40 years.
As of last year, over 6,000 Indians live in Korea with over 1,600 working as professionals, scientists and post-doctoral research scholars.
"This new (scientific) deal will open a new dialogue between Indian and Korean scientists, and scientific institutions in both countries," he said. "Earlier, it was done by individual effort under individual initiatives and there was no particular plan, but now the government and the institutions will come together."
"So it is the beginning and I am very hopeful that it will maintain and foster fruitful mutual relations."
South Korea signs on to finance first Jordan nuclear reactor
Jordan and South Korea have signed a $70 million loan agreement to finance the kingdom's first nuclear research reactor.
The state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute and Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. are expected to start building a 5-megawatt reactor November 1 at the Jordan University for Science and Technology near the northern city of Irbid.
A planning ministry statement said Monday the reactor will be "fully commissioned within five years and a nuclear power plant will be built by 2017."
Resource-barren Jordan is developing a peaceful nuclear program with U.S. support. But the U.S. has expressed reservations over Jordan's desire to enrich its large reserves of uranium.
Jordan says alternative energy sources are needed to generate electricity and desalinate water.
Last month, Jordan's King Abdullah accused Israel of trying to prevent his kingdom from developing a peaceful nuclear program.
The king revealed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that Israel had approached South Korea and France with requests to refrain from selling Jordan nuclear technology. Israel's "underhanded" actions are adding tension to already strained relations with Jordan, bringing ties between the two countries to their lowest point since they signed a peace agreement in 1994, the king said.
"There are countries, Israel in particular," Abdullah told the Wall Street Journal, "that are more worried about us being economically independent than the issue of nuclear energy, and have been voicing their concerns."
"There are many such reactors in the world and a lot more coming, so [the Israelis must] go mind their own business," he added.
Israeli officials denied any action to prevent Jordan from developing nuclear energy.
sorces:HAARETZ.COM
Couples bridge the divisions between Koreas
Northern women, southern men offer look at consequences of reunification | ||||||||||||||||
Jang was different. “He was extremely pleased to hear from me because there was no way for him to contact me without me reaching him first,” said Kim, her accent betraying her birthplace in North Hamgyong Province. It was the beginning of a romance between a South Korean bachelor and a woman from the North who had crossed the border. The party where the two met was organized by the city of Anseong, Gyeonggi, to encourage marriages between South Korean men and North Korean female defectors. Kim was a trainee at Hanawon, the government-run resettlement education center for North Korean escapees. She had no address or phone number of her own and was not allowed to leave the center. Jang had to come through a barbed-wire fence to see her. “It seems improbable, but he lives right next to the center. So we could see each other’s faces through the fence,” recalled Kim. “In fact, no one is allowed to approach [the center for security reasons], but the police knew him because he lives in Pumgok Village, which is a sister village of the center. Because of that he could come and see me.”
“We grew up in different cultures. It made me unsure about getting married to him in the first place,” Kim said. The most difficult thing for Kim to understand was Jang’s credit cards. “In the North, we spend only if we have cash in our pockets. Jang had a couple of credit cards, and it was one thing that I couldn’t really understand.” Kim found herself feeling sympathy for Jang as their relationship developed, though. “I had no time to settle down as I wandered from place to place, but he grew older as he cared for his mother. He wanted to have a family of his own, but he was not an ideal spouse in the eyes of [South Korean] women here because of his sick mother.” Jang has cared for his mother for the past 12 years. Jang’s bedridden mother reminded Kim of her mother who lived in extreme poverty in the North until she passed away. “I was a bad daughter. Sitting up with Jang’s dying mother was a kind of compensation for me.” Kim’s devotion to Jang’s mother helped the 43-year-old bachelor think of Kim as one woman he couldn’t let go. Kim also thought of Jang as a man on whom she could rely for the rest of her life. “If he’s good to his mother, I thought he would be good to me.” The couple finally walked down the aisle in March last year and became one of a few so-called namnambungnyeo couples. The term, which means “southern man, northern woman,” predates the division of the two Koreas. Traditionally it refers to the perfect couple, since northern Korea was believed to have the most beautiful women, while the southern part of the peninsula was thought to have more good-looking men. The division of Korea into North and South brought new cultural connotations to the term. Now namnambungnyeo couples are depicted in stories of star-crossed love in dramas and films, but the concept has gained a new lease in real life with an increasing number of North Koreans - especially females - crossing the border since the late 1990s, when the North was struck by famine.
“The North is a society where there is a sharp line between men and women. Most men belong to various organizations, and their movements are tracked. “But for women, they have greater chance of mobility which makes it easier to escape,” said Shin. “Because of this, we started to see far higher number of female North Korean defectors than male defectors from 2002.” One effect of this soaring number of female escapees is the growing number of matchmaking companies arranging dates between North Korean women and South Korean men. “My main focus is Vietnam, Uzbekistan, China, Thailand and the Philippines, but I newly added North Korean women after receiving consistent inquires from South Korean men,” said a matchmaking company official who asked not to be identified. He promotes his company by leaving business card-sized flyers in subway cars. Asked what makes South Korean men interested in women from the North, he said he didn’t want to talk about the issue further. But Hong Seung-woo, who since 2006 has run a matchmaking company named Namnambungnyeo Marriage Information Company, had an answer. Hong is one-half of a namnambungnyeo couple since marrying Kang Ok-sil, who came to the South in 2001. His company, like several others, specializes exclusively in marriages between men from the South and women from the North. Hong said his company succeeded in matching about 300 couples so far. “We receive phone calls from male escapees, but we only do marriages between South men and North women. If both men and women have nothing, it is just hard to live.” Although North Korean defectors receive vocational training at the Hanawon center, most of them, especially men, find themselves doing menial jobs such as carrying bricks at construction sites. They also suffer from a high unemployment rate: 13.7 percent as of last December, far higher than the average 3.5 percent rate for all South Koreans at that time. For this reason, marrying a South Korean man is an appealing way for women from the North to try to adapt to a new society. “I strongly recommend North Korean women get married to South Korean men, not to North Korean defectors, ethnic Koreans or Chinese. Otherwise, it is hard to live in this society,” said Kim Hye-young. However, some South Korean men also prefer North Korean women for various reasons. “When my wife and I launched this company years ago, our main clients were men in their mid- to late-30s, but we see men from diverse age groups come and seek advice from us these days.” Hong remembers one 28-year-old male client. “He was deeply heartbroken after he realized his girlfriend was cheating on him. He said he was not going to see another South Korean woman after that.” Hong receives as many as six phone calls per day from South Korean men. “Some say they are sick and tired of demanding South Korean women who keep urging them to buy pricey gifts such as luxury handbags. Some are children of people who used to live in the North before the Korean Peninsula divided. And some simply have fantasies about North Korean women,” Hong said. The popular stereotype of a North Korean woman is pretty, pure, innocent and diligent, according to Choi Young-hee, who manages a matchmaking company named Namnambungnyeo Marriage Consulting. Choi, who came to the South from Pyongyang in 2002, was the first to open a namnambungnyeo matchmaking company in 2005. Since then, she said she has produced 416 couples. “Diverse types of matchmaking companies have been around for decades, but they are all for international marriages. I thought we [women defectors] needed one of our own.” When asked about the divorce rates among namnambungnyeo couples, Choi said, “They all defect from the North by risking their lives. They don’t take marriage lightly as some South Koreans do.” For six dates, men usually pay between 1.5 million ($1,250) and 2 million won, while women pay nothing, Choi added. There are a few worrisome commercial undertones to the namnambungnyeo trend. Some sensational banners read “Let’s get married to North Korean women,” and “North Korean women never run away.” However, the Coalition for North Korean Women’s Rights, located in Sinwol-dong, Yangcheon District, western Seoul, sees some such matchmaking companies as supportive. “Women escapees don’t need to pay for the service, and they are able to meet bachelors who are already filtered by managers from matchmaking companies. Since most women defectors want to get married and get settled here, we view it positively,” said Lee Eun-sil, an official from the coalition. “Some worry about culture clashes between men from the South and women from the North, but we’ve seen more divorces from North Korean couples after they come to the South,” Lee said. “Wives say they can’t put up with their husbands who tend to be patriarchal, which is said to be a common trait of North Korean men.”
Although the central government does not compile data regarding namnambungnyeo marriages, experts on inter-Korean issues say these couples might be a test to gauge the future of a unified Korea. “Family is one of the closest relationships. In that sense, these couples would show what ideology and value conflicts might arise when North and South Koreans actually live together,” said Professor Lee Woo-young from the University of North Korean Studies. “What we know about North Korea is very superficial and theoretical, and one could call these couples experiments.” source: Jung-ang Daily |
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Major Events
1. Korea Art Summer Festival (KASF) 2010
http://www.kasf.co.kr
An annual art fair where over 250 artists in genres spanning across painting, traditional Korean art, sculpture, installation art, craft, gather together and interact with visitors.
- Period : July 28 – August 1, 2010
- Venue : Seoul Trade Exhibition Center (SETEC)
2. Sacheon International Percussion Festival 2010
http://www.sacheonpercussion.
There will be astounding performances by world-class traditional and contemporary percussion artists as well as various exhibitions and workshops.
- Period : July 28 – August 1, 2010
- Venue : Sacheon Art & Culture Center, Sacheon City, Gyeonggsangnam-do
Activities & Announcements
1. Invitation to the Premiere of "Thank You, Master KIM (Intangible Asset No. 82)"
Thank You, Master KIM tells the story of a respected Australian jazz drummer and his search for an elusive South Korean shaman and grandmaster musician. It is a road movie, a philosophical encounter, a showcase of fascinating musicians rarely heard outside of Korea and a tribute to the universal language of music.
- Date & Time : August 11 (Wed) 14:00
- Venue : National Assembly Family Theatre (Gookhwe Gajok Geukjang), Yeouido, Seoul
- Program :
14:00-14:15 Korean traditional "East Coast Peculiar Exorcism's Ceremony" performance
14:20-15:30 Premiere of "Thank You, Master KIM"
Those students who wish to attend the premiere, please contact the following person:
Ms. Soo-Bin Jo
070-7019-0373
oscal@indieplug.net
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