SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s offline bookstores, led by large bookstores, saw their 2021 sales rise year on year, data showed Thursday. The nation’s offline bookstores recorded combined revenues of 1.39 trillion won (US$1.05 billion) last year, up 19.5 percent from a year ago, according to a report by local market research [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Naver Webtoon, an online platform for digital comics run by South Korea’s leading portal operator Naver, said Monday it has developed new technology that can recognize the image-based lines of webtoons and turn them into text to enable visually-handicapped people to enjoy comics The company announced that it had [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a South Korean civic group, said Sunday it has launched a website in the Vietnamese language to offer accurate information about South Korea to Vietnamese students, who account for a large share of the exchange students in South Korea. The website offers [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik said Friday the possibility of Pope Francis’ trip to North Korea depends on the communist country. “Everything depends on North Korea. But I understand there has been no response from the North,” the cardinal said when asked during a press conference in Seoul about the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The traditional Korean mask dance, or “talchum” in Korean, was inscribed onto a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list Wednesday. UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage decided to put “Talchum, Mask Dance Drama in the Republic of Korea” on the Representative List of the Intangible [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean piano prodigy Lim Yunchan said Monday he wanted to deliver Beethoven’s utopia through the composer’s No. 5 Piano Concerto “Emperor” on his first live album in collaboration with Gwangju Symphony Orchestra. The 18-year-old took the stage with the local orchestra, conducted by Hong Suk-won, at Tongyeong Concert [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean ancient history book, traditional women’s poetry and records of a massive oil spill have been added to the regional list of the UNESCO Memory of the World program. The Cultural Heritage Administration said “Samguk-yusa” (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) and two other candidates from the country [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down two legal clauses permanently banning people convicted of sex crimes against children from being appointed as public officials or soldiers. Under the two separate laws, people convicted for sexual offenses against minors are permanently banned from working as public servants or career [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The National Museum of Korea (NMK) on Wednesday will reopen a gallery remodeled to spotlight the true beauty of the celadon ware of the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) as one of the country’s most iconic cultural heritage. It took one year for the museum to give a facelift to the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean pianist Lee Hyuk has won the first prize at the Long-Thibaud International Competition held in France, along with Japanese pianist Masaya Kamei, according to its organizer. The 22-year-old played Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in the final contest that closed at Chatelet Theater in Paris on Sunday [...]