Renowned South Korean climber, 2 partners disappear while trying to summit Mount Annapurna
AP via Washington Post
A renowned South Korean climber and two of his partners have disappeared while trying to summit Mount Annapurna, official and rescuers said Thursday.
Dipendra Poudel of Nepal’s mountaineering department in Katmandu said rescuers have not been able to find any trace of the three South Korean climbers missing since Tuesday.
Park Young-seok has climbed the world’s 14 tallest mountains and reached both the north and south poles. He first climbed Annapurna in 1996. It is the 10th tallest and considered a technically difficult climb.
The department identified the two other missing South Korean climbers as Kang Ki-seok and Shin Dong-min.
New U.S. Envoy to Talk With North Koreans
New York Times
The United States will resume exploratory talks with North Korea next week in Geneva and has appointed a full-time envoy with a background in nuclear issues, the State Department announced Wednesday.
The news media in North Korea reported, meanwhile, that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il, made rare comments on the possibility of resuming broader six-nation talks aimed at ending his country’s nuclear program.
The current American representative for North Korea policy, Stephen W. Bosworth, will be replaced by Glyn Davies, the United States ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman. In the past, Mr. Davies held a senior position in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Review: Karen O’s ‘Stop The Virgens’ Is Pretty, Vacant
Village Voice
The Voice gives a somewhat lukewarm review of Karen O’s latest project.
There ought to be something lethal at the heart of a rock show, some hurts-so-good death drive that reminds you how glorious it is to live, to breathe, to dance. Karen O’s “psycho rock opera” Stop The Virgens—playing at St. Ann’s Warehouse through the weekend—takes that fatal impulse seriously. By the piece’s end, 40 blood-spattered bodies litter the stage, victims of a sudden and violent plague. Lock up your daughters; post-punk can kill.
This mass demise and its ensuing resurrection are the closest this stylish, vacant show comes to narrative, frustrating the expectations of audience members who took seriously the idea that it would have the dramatic heft of an opera. O and co-creator KK Barrett create a world part Brothers Grimm and part Henry Darger, with a dash of Village of the Damned, but they haven’t borrowed any of the plots.
Bloomberg to meet Korean residents in New York
Yonhap
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to hold an unprecedented town hall meeting with Korean residents in the city next week, a move that apparently reflects the growing presence and influence of Koreans in the United States, a community group said Thursday.
Bloomberg, accompanied by other senior municipal officials, will have a meeting with several groups of Koreans at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Flushing Library in New York, according to Korean American Community Foundation (KACF).
HBO Developing ‘China Doll’ Family Drama From ‘Big Love’ Creators
Deadline.com
The creators of polygamist series Big Love are developing another unconventional family drama for HBO. Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer are behind China Doll, a show in the works at the pay cable network about a mixed-race family and their humanoid robot. The project combines Scheffer’s passion for technology and Olsen’s interest in Chinese history and politics. “It is about China, Chinese Americans, robots, the effect of technology on our lives and the China moment in American consciousness,” said Olsen, referring to China’s current economic ascendance that is changing the dynamic in the U.S.-Chinese relationship. China Doll centers on a successful California construction subcontractor, his Asian American wife who is a university professor, and a robot as they straddle both sides of the Pacific with extended families on two continents.
Alleged rapes by U.S. soldiers ratchet up anger in South Korea
Los Angeles Times
Three violent attacks on South Korean residents were allegedly committed in recent weeks by off-duty U.S. servicemen here, including the assault of a 70-year-old grandmother and the unconnected rapes of two other women, Seoul officials say.
Park Kyungsoo, 30, director of the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea, knew the public outrage to the crimes would be swift.
“There’s a degree of perversion to the attacks that I knew South Koreans wouldn’t stand for,” said Park.
A 21-year-old U.S. Army private is in South Korean custody after being indicted in the alleged rape of an 18-year-old girl. U.S. officials, including top East Asian diplomat Kurt Campbell, apologized for “pain” caused by allegations that American soldiers sexually assaulted citizens here, and the military has imposed a temporary curfew on its soldiers across South Korea.
N.Korea Appears to Crackdown on Choco Pies in Kaesong
Chosun Ilbo
The amount of Choco Pie snacks consumed by North Korean workers in the Kaesong Industrial Complex, an inter-Korean project located in the North, has dropped significantly, according to sources on Wednesday.
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Plea deal sought for Cali. man in Aug. motorcycle death
Cortez Journal (Cortez, Colo.)
The case of a California man accused of causing an Aug. 5 accident that killed a motorcyclist is on hold to give the prosecution and defense more time to reach an agreement.
Representing defendant Joonwan Choi, 21, of Fullerton, Calif., Cortez attorney Cameron Secrist on Tuesday told the judge his client extends his condolences to the victim’s widow and family. He said the incident was unfortunate and tragic.
Choi is charged with careless driving causing death after allegedly running a stop sign in a BMW X5 SUV and smashing into a Harley-Davidson motorcycle ridden by 54-year-old Richard E. James of Mancos at the Mesa Verde overpass of U.S. Highway 160, according to a Colorado State Patrol investigation.
James was thrown from his motorcycle. He received treatment from emergency responders and was transported to Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, where he was pronounced dead.
Woman dies in Bluffs house fire
Daily Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa)
A Council Bluffs woman died Wednesday after fire personnel pulled her from a house fire.
Yon-Sook Kim, 77, died at Alegent Health Mercy Hospital after firefighters found her over-come by smoke and unconscious in her home at 917 Spruce St.
The woman is the mother of Inky Westfall, an aide to Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan and the city’s co-director of First Night celebration each New Year’s Eve.
Korea Rediscovers Its Rock ‘N’ Roll Soul
New York Times
[Shin Joong-hyun] has been called the godfather of South Korean rock. Mojo magazine likened him to Phil Spector for his ability to discover talent and create sounds. Mr. Shin’s sound was low-fi and psychedelic, freely mixing genres and, as time passed, it grew ever more wild. His albums typically had short, poppy songs, on the Aside, but side B was for Mr. Shin and the band, featuring free-flowing instrumentals up to 22 minutes long.
“The man was a revolutionary who mixed Western music such as rock, soul, and folk with the sound of traditional Korean music,” said Matt Sullivan, founder of Light in the Attic Records, an American boutique label that in September issued two retrospectives of Mr. Shin’s music.
TOKiMONSTA: “Hotel Room” (Unreleased)
prefix
Uh, she’s not from Japan. She was born in Torrance, Calif., and is Korean American.
Los Angeles-by-way-of-Japan producer TOKiMONSTA dropped one of the year’s strongest beat excursions this past May with the Creature Dreams EP. Since then, she’s stayed busy DJing, performing live instrumental sets, and (hopefully) working on her next full-length release. But before we hear more about any of that, she’s taken to her Soundcloud page to drop off a few cuts from her past. “Hotel Room,” a glimmering bass-heavy romp, was apparently made in 2008. But for whatever reason, she never shared it until now. We’re sure glad she did, if only because the genre of “robot porn” is so perfect it hurts.
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Bergen freeholders field noise, traffic complaints linked to Korean-American festival
Bergen County Record (N.J.)
I have a strong feeling the festival will be moving back to New York next year.
Several Leonia residents complained to the Bergen County freeholders on Wednesday night about the noise and traffic generated by a recent Korean-American festival at Overpeck County Park.
“This has nothing to do with the type of event,” said Leonia Mayor Mary Heveran “Bringing people together is a beautiful thing.” But she said the noise was such that she could hear the thump of the bass all weekend from her home in the borough’s north end. “This particular event was too large, too loud and too dangerous,” Heveran said.
But several people who attended the festival turned out to voice support for the event.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Sungbae Ju, a River Edge resident and President and CEO of Garden State Opera. He described the festival crowd as “well-behaved and cordial” as they celebrated their culture. “We have a right to congregate in a public space,” he added.
The weekend festival drew an estimated 75,000 people on Oct. 8 and 9 to the Ridgefield Park section of Overpeck County Park.
Occupy Wall Street Gets Pyongyang’s Backing
Wall Street Journal
North Korea’s state news agency weighed in on the Occupy Wall Street protests Thursday, highlighting the “stern judgment” of “millions of people” against a capitalist system that “brings exploitation, oppression, unemployment and poverty to the popular masses.”
The Korean Central News Agency’s daily dispatches usually contain a few accounts of the woes of the rest of the world, so KCNA’s editors were probably rubbing their hands with glee at the chance to play up the Occupy movement, which the report says is “sweeping across the capitalist world.”
With no apparent sense of irony, KCNA says that in capitalist society “1% of privileged class is granted all preferential treatment while 99% of working masses are forced into poverty and death.”
henry cho as earl lee, barcelo vip
angryasianman
Look who’s front and center as the VIP in this commercial for Barceló Hotels & Resorts. It’s none other than veteran comedian Henry Cho as big deal high roller Earl Lee, rocking a cowboy hat and living it up. He advises you to book early.
Lee Seung-yeop to Return to Korea
Chosun Ilbo
Orix Buffaloes slugger and Korea’s national hitter Lee Seung-yeop is coming home. Lee reportedly informed the Osaka-based Japanese team of his desire to leave when they slipped to fourth place in the regular season and failed to qualify for the postseason on Tuesday.
5 reasons to visit Jeonju
CNNGo
Hankering for a weekend getaway from Seoul? The Jeonju Bibimbap Festival kicks off today at its namesake city in the south of the peninsula. A little under three hours away by bus, Jeonju features a historical setting, an artistic vibe and a culinary reputation. Here are five reasons to visit the city.
