Korean street market in 1960, probably near or in Seoul. The exact location has not been positively identified yet. The photographer, my father Leroy Smothers, did not label the 35 mm slide this image was scanned from. He traveled all over South Korea, so this could be somewhere other than Seoul. (We lived 1960 near Itaewon, south of Seoul.) [Bill Somther’s Flickr page]
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) and Gangnam District Office have agreed to resume a long-stalled project to develop a shanty town in the most affluent district in Seoul, officials said Friday.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Shin Yeon-hee, head of the district office, will hold a joint press conference next week to announce details of the agreement, an SMG official said.
The SMG and the district office have long been at odds over how to develop Guryong Village, considered the last remaining urban slum in Seoul, and how to compensate the residents.
“The SMG has decided to accept the district office’s demands regarding how to develop the area,” the SMG official said.
The SMG’s change of stance was prompted by a fire in the village on Nov. 10 that left one person dead and destroyed the homes of 136 people. It was the eleventh fire in the village since 2009.
“We understood the urgency for the government to take swift action, since political gridlock means nothing when people die and lose their homes,” the official said. [Korea Times]
Park Hyun-jung, president and CEO of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, is under fire over allegations that she sexually harassed employees, verbally assaulted them and abused her power in hiring and promotion decisions.
Insiders of the Seoul-government funded orchestra say Park tried to touch a male employee’s genital area in October last year by pulling him by his necktie at a public dinner gathering after drinking an excessive amount of alcohol.
“From the look of you, I think you will do well as a (bar) hostess,” she was also quoted as saying to a female employee during a meeting.
A petition filed against her reveals that Park told two other female employees at the meeting that they should serve important guests by sitting next to them and doing the duty of bar girls. [Korea Observer]
A giant yellow rubber duck sitting on Seoul’s Seokchon Lake has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of South Koreans, while carrying the hopes of a local retail giant trying to dampen public fears over a controversial construction project in a posh Seoul neighborhood.
Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s rubber duck, weighing seven tons with a concrete anchor and pontoon that supports it, arrived at the Seoul lake last week in time for the opening of Lotte World Mall, a disputed high-rise developed by Lotte.
In addition to its familiarity as a bath time toy and the gigantic size that is hard not to notice, the art installation has garnered public attention for its Lotte affiliation.
Critics charge that the conglomerate invited the public art project to Seokchon Lake, which faces Lotte World Mall, to mitigate public unease over the new shopping complex.
While no clear link has been confirmed, the appearance of sink holes and a fall in the lake’s water level have spurred safety concerns over the development where construction of a 123-story skyscraper is still underway. The lower floors of the complex opened last week. [Yonhap]
It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but I expect eventually gay marriage will become a normal practice in Korea just like it is in the US:
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon has put himself at the center of controversy after he expressed his support for same-sex marriage during his recent trip to the United States.
Talking to the San Francisco Examiner, Park was quoted as saying, “I personally agree with the rights of homosexuals,” adding Korea would become the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) homepage was immediately inundated with comments, most of them complaints.
Park has successfully drawn public attention, but it remains to be seen whether this bold political gamble will help the potential presidential bid of Park, a liberal-minded former NGO leader. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but interesting both the religious groups and the gay activists groups are upset Mayor Park’s stance. The gay activist groups do not think he is doing enough.
It was reported a few weeks ago that Seoul is planning to close the Seoul Station Overpass and turn it into a park, influenced by High Line Park in New York City (itself influenced by Promenade plantée in Paris). The Wall Street Journal Blog compares it to Lee Myung-bak’s Cheonggyecheon Restoration as a possible ‘pre-run-for-the-presidency project’ by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. [Popular Gusts]
Star Trek 3 will be filmed in Seoul, Mayor Park Won-soon said Monday.
“Today I met with Jeffrey Chernov, producer of Star Track 3, at the Paramount Pictures Studio and agreed to film a portion of the upcoming movie in Seoul,” Park said in his Facebook post.
Assuming they go forward with the plan to shoot in Seoul, this is significant as it will be the first Star Trek film to do any shooting outside of United States.
TrekMovie has already reported that the upcoming Star Trek film will not be Earth focused, so it appears that the Korean location will be standing in for some kind of alien location, or possibly a (non-Earth) Starfleet location. [Korea Noodles]
