North Korea Vows Nuclear Test and Threatens U.S.
New York Times

North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch more long-range rockets and conduct its third nuclear test, saying that it would build up its capability of striking the United States after the United Nations’s expansion of sanctions against North Korea.

The North’s threat was the boldest challenge its new, untested leader, Kim Jong-un, has posed at his country’s longtime foe, the United States, and its last remaining major ally, China, and rattled governments in Northeast Asia that are undergoing sensitive transitions of power.

In a statement issued through state-run media, the National Defense Commission, the North’s highest governing agency, headed by Mr. Kim, said that “a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the D.P.R.K. one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it” will be “targeted” at “the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people.”

U.S. envoy warns N. Korea against conducting nuclear test
Yonhap News

A special envoy from Washington warned Pyongyang Thursday against conducting a nuclear test, minutes before North Korea threatened to carry out an atomic test and more rocket launches directed at the United States in retaliation to toughened U.N. sanctions.

“Whether North Korea tests or not, it’s up to North Korea. We hope they don’t do it, we call on them not to do it. It will be a mistake and a missed opportunity if they were to do it,” said Glyn Davies, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea policy, when asked about the possibility of a nuclear test by North Korea.

China calls for talks after North Korean threat
Los Angeles Times

With North Korea openly threatening the United States with nuclear weapons, China called Thursday for a new round of diplomacy and appears to be growing increasingly frustrated with its longtime ally.

Beijing’s calls for intervention come amid a torrent of belligerent language from Pyongyang, angered by a United Nations resolution earlier in the week expanding sanctions over its missile and nuclear program.

The latest escalation came Thursday when Pyongyang lashed out at the United States, which it called the “archenemy of the Korean people.”

Ki Suh Park dies at 80; architect helped rebuild L.A. after riots
Los Angeles Times

From rubble and wreckage, Ki Suh Park often saw possibility. It was so as he stood amid the destruction of the Korean War, when he resolved to study architecture and help rebuild his homeland. And it was so as he drove down Western Avenue after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when he vowed to help rebuild a community after the violence that wracked his adopted home.

Park, an architect who rose to become a leader in the city’s Korean American community, died Jan. 16 at Stanford University Medical Center after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer, his family said. He was 80.

Antonia Hernandez, an immigrant rights activist who served with him on Rebuild L.A., a campaign to help rebuild and revitalize riot-stricken areas, credits Park with representing the Korean community while encouraging consensus during a time when tensions were still raw.

Palisades Park mayor hailed by Korean-American group
Bergen County Record (N.J.)

Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo was recently recognized for his work with the local Korean community by the Korean-American Association of Greater New York.

Rotundo, who has been mayor since 2004, received the “Good Neighbor Award” for his “hard work and efforts” at a ceremony in New York earlier this month.

“Mr. Rotundo was recommended by the Korean-American community because Korean-American people recognized his great efforts in upholding human rights, especially with regard to the memorial to the forced sex slavery by Japan,” said Paul Park, executive director of the organization.

Man accused of scamming Hines Ward waives hearing
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Brookline man accused of trying to extort money from retired Pittsburgh Steelers star Hines Ward waived Tuesday his right to a preliminary hearing.

Joshua R. Van Auker, 26, is next scheduled to appear March 11 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for formal arraignment.

Investigators from the district attorney’s office have charged Mr. Van Auker with two felony counts of attempted extortion, accusing him of trying to squeeze $15,000 from Mr. Ward’s personal assistant, Raymond Burgess Jr., in exchange for not releasing allegedly damaging information about the former wide receiver.

OF CASTE AND COMMUNITY: RETURN AND RE-MIGRATION OF NORTH KOREANS
NK News

Until recently, South Korea has been the final destination for most North Korean refugees and other returning ethnic Koreans. However, the situation is changing in that an increasing number of individuals who have settled in the South are now leaving and heading for North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific Region. The forms and patterns which this new phenomenon of Korean remigration takes are diverse and, at times, antagonistic to the borders of nation-states.

Given that mass movements of people are always a dynamic phenomenon, intimately tied to the vicissitudes of global power, it is not surprising that, as the number of North Koreans in South Korea continues to grow, we are privileged to bear witness to a number of eccentricities emerging from within this migrant community. This article will briefly discuss concepts of caste acting to ‘push’ a growing number of North Koreans to leave South Korea, and then describe two such peculiarities, firstly, the relatively well-known ‘return migration’, and the newer ‘re-migration’.

‘US crucial for Dokdo defense’
Korea Times

With new leaders in both South Korea and Japan, the chronic territorial dispute over the Dokdo Islets is about to enter a fresh round. Now it’s up to the incoming Park Geun-hye administration to quickly and strategically engage the U.S. to get the upper hand on the diplomatically sensitive issue, says a prominent Dokdo expert.

“It’s more important than ever to get the U.S. to lean in our direction,’’ Choi Jang-geun, a professor of the Department of Japanese Language and Studies at Daegu University, said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Currently a visiting scholar at Murray State University, Choi also heads Daegu University’s Dokdo Territorial Studies Research Center.

Expert care, minimal pain, fast recoveries with Dr. Pak
Queens Chronicle (N.Y.)

Having surgery can be a scary proposition for most people, that’s why it is important to consult an experienced, trustworthy physician. There is perhaps no one that embodies both those qualities more than Dr. Sang Pak, a general surgeon practicing in Queens for the past 13 years.

Pak recently completed a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery. That advanced training allows him to care for complex cases with minimally invasive techniques in laparoscopy.

Control Your Personal Brand or Get Left Behind
Patch.com (Palo Alto, Calif.)

Karen Kang learned a thing or two about branding as a principal and partner for RegisMcKenna, the firm that put Apple, Intel and Genentech on the map, and later for her own company, BrandingPays, based here in Palo Alto.

But Kang has a new message for 2013—personal branding. She’s just released the book, BrandingPays: The Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand. The book is aimed at professionals and entrepreneurs, students and recent graduates, and provides inspiring examples of how branding spurred success.

According to Kang, your personal brand will make or break your next career opportunity.

Between Takes, ‘Bullet to the Head’ Cast Gushes Over Stallone
Hollywood.com

Sung Kang (Fast Five) plays Stallone’s partner, Taylor Kwon, in the film — a character whose background doesn’t help his stature with the rough, tough James Bonomo (Stallone). It’s a relationship prime for comedy. Making reference to Hill’s past work, Kang says that Bullet redefines “that whole 48 Hrs dynamic between Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy” and the culture clash becomes the meat of the story. “In the past, any time there was an Asian in a film, let’s say, opposite an African-American, the jokes were always on the Asian guy,” says Kang. “Like, ‘You don’t speak English!’ ‘What do you do, kung fu?’ It’s more making fun of his ethnicity, but he couldn’t return it. But this is more acceptable, because it’s this old-school guy in his 60s, and it’s a guy’s guy kind of thing.” The comedy found in Bonomo and Kwon’s pairing is pure science in Kang’s mind. “You put these two people together, and it’s water and oil. You shake it up, and it becomes humorous. It’s really funny.”

Top Chef Seattle Recap: Kentwood’s Kristen Kish waiting in the wings while the other chefs deep fry theirs
MLive.com (Mich.)

[Kristen] Kish will have a shot at redemption by defeating Smith-Malave in a head-to-head battle in the Last Chance Kitchen. Will she continue on and fight her way back or will Smith-Malave prove that she wasn’t the weak link that cost Kish her crown.

Football defender Yun Suk-young set to join QPR in Premier League
Yonhap

Football defender Yun Suk-young is set to join the Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in the English Premier League, the player’s South Korean club announced Thursday.

Chunnam Dragons of the first-division K League Classic said in a press release that Yun will leave the team’s training camp in Bangkok, Thailand, to undergo medical tests before signing with the London-based club. Should he pass those tests, Yun will become the 11th South Korean player to don a Premier League uniform. He will also join South Korean veteran Park Ji-sung on the QPR.

A Sweet Gig
Hyphen

Confectionery artisan and designer Jenna Park adds sugar and spice to the blog world.

Food stalls become source of livelihood and bad business
Yonhap News

Kim In-su laughs nervously as a crowd begins to form in front of him. It’s 9 p.m., halfway through the dinner rush, and already the street food guru is in emergency mode; the rice is almost gone.

On a narrow side street in Noryangjin, a district of western Seoul, a procession of shivering students huddle impatiently beneath the yellow glow of a dusty halogen bulb hanging from his plastic tent. They’re here for his “cup bap,” or cup rice, a quick and cheap meal served in a cup that has become popular, and a lifeline for many in the area.

“It has to be delicious,” he said, calling in more rice from a neighboring stall. “That’s what keeps them coming back.”

Jeju tangerine, Korean health food
The Jeju Weekly

Koreans consume twice as many Jeju tangerines as they consume apples. Due to the high concentration of bioactive substances and vitamins, Jeju tangerines were long used for herbal medicines to enhance bodily functions and safeguarded Koreans from numerous diseases.

AHSC helps Asian immigrants afford breast cancer care
KATU (Portland, Ore.)

AHSC helped Young Mee Kim with interpreting, setting up appointments, paying for treatment and getting the support she needed during her recovery process. “Through AHSC this was all resolved so I felt a bit more relieved and could focus on just my fight with this disease,” Kim said. “If it wasn’t for AHSC I’d be in a very difficult situation and my recovery would probably have taken longer.”

Leigh Ann Hahn: Polyglot L.A. Is A Grand Performance
KCET

“My goal when I was a child was to be blond-headed and blue-eyed like all the other kids I hung out with, but that was never going to happen. “So eventually I realized I didn’t necessarily want to change, but I did want to blend in. The idea of living in Los Angeles was really appealing to me because Los Angeles is a polyglot community.

A Korean American zenith [OPINION]
The Korea Times

This November, the Korean-American community needs to choose the best candidate to represent its unique needs and views in the Oval Office for the next four years. It isn’t much of a choice. There is only one candidate who, throughout his career, has consistently supported and committed to Korean-Americans. During his first term as president, Barack Obama has set a historic precedent in making Asian-American issues a priority for his administration.

1992 riots the centerpiece of Korean American Film Festival
Los Angeles Times

Continuing through Saturday, the first Korean American Film Festival Los Angeles features 24 movies (including narrative and short films and documentaries), with its centerpiece program of five movies focusing on the Korean American perspective on the riots 20 years later. All screenings take place at the Korean Cultural Center, 5505 Wilshire Blvd.

Courtroom tension boils in Apple-Samsung showdown
Reuters

It was the end of a long week in court in the Apple-Samsung legal war, and Samsung attorney John Quinn was trying to block his adversary, Apple attorney Bill Lee, from showing the jury a document. As Quinn made his argument to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, he slipped in a reference to Koh’s pre-trial order blocking sales of some Samsung products — a subject Koh had forbidden the parties from discussing in front of the jury.

Minority Business Leaders: Shinjoo Cho
Philadelphia Business Journal

Shinjoo Cho did not take a traditional route to her job as technical assistance and outreach manager for the Philadelphia Department of Commerce. A native of South Korea, Cho studied piano performance and pedagogy (the art of teaching ) at the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J.

K-Town Episode 5: Korean Speed Dating and SCARLET SMASH!
San Francisco Weekly

As much as I love K-Town, I must quibble with the show’s refusal to coherently tie up loose ends. In Episode 5, there’s no mention of Young’s lapdance imbroglio, though, I’ll let it slide because it opens with some of his own impromptu dancing while Prince Jowe impressively beat-boxes Wu-Tang Clan’s “Ain’t Nuthing Ta F’ Wit.”

Asbury Methodist Church welcomes Rev. Hyekyung Pauline Kang as its new pastor
NJ.com

Rev. Kang is a first generation Korean-American. Since 1985, when she began her theological studies at Drew University, she served as a pastor for children and youth in various churches until she took a full-time position in 2002 as educational minister at Korean Community Church in Englewood.

Yang Hak-seon vaults from poor beginnings
The Hankyoreh

The nineteen-year-old seemed trepidacious. His Kakao Talk profile read, “Yang! Hak! Seon! Shoooow your coooourage!!!!!” Such was the urgency. A few days before, he had dreamed of being shunned by his cohorts at the Taereung Athletes’ Village, national training center for South Korean athletes, for failing to win a medal. Even the springboard at North Greenwich Arena was causing problems: the springs were too strong for his body weight. Chances of gold? Ninety-nine percent. And even that was just a possibility. Nobody could say for certain. But the Korea National Sport University student was as courageous as he had to be on the Olympic stage. More than that: he was flawless.

Korean Coca-Cola More Harmful Than Made-in-USA
Korea Times via New America Media

A consumer group claims that Coca-Cola produced in South Korea has 24 times the amount of a harmful substance than that manufactured in the United States.

Consumers Korea released a statement Friday citing a report made by the U.S.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, that Coke made in Korea had 96 micrograms (ug) of the chemical 4 methylimidizole (4-MI), far exceeding amounts in the soda produced in China at 56 ug, and Japan, 72 ug.

Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm
Phys.org

Now researchers at MIT, Harvard University and Seoul National University have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves via peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, much like an earthworm. The robot, made almost entirely of soft materials, is remarkably resilient: Even when stepped upon or bludgeoned with a hammer, the robot is able to inch away, unscathed.

The INNERview #20 “C.S. Lee” A famous Korean American Actor at Hollywood Part.2

Arirang TV’s INNERview meets with top celebrities and renowned Koreans in the arts, sports, and entertainment, as well as renowned personalities from abroad who have come to visit Korea.

Who Will Lead Korean America?

It’s a question that was heard 20 years ago, when Los Angeles burned and Korean Americans found themselves on the frontlines of the 1992 riots. It’s also one that resurfaces in 2012, as the country’s largest Korean American community faces new battles that could sure benefit from the voice of leadership.

story by JIMMY LEE
illustrations by INKI CHO

IN ARGUABLY the local story of the season, scores of Korean Americans converged on City Hall this past spring, and with their bright yellow “I Love K-town” T-shirts, literally lit up the august chambers of the Los Angeles City Council. They mobilized in numbers unheard of since the 1992 L.A. riots (World Cup soccer tournaments notwithstanding) and engaged in a political process that is as convoluted as it is controversial, no less: redistricting.

As members of the community, largely apathetic about civic affairs in the past, weighed in on how the city should reset its 15 council districts and, in some cases, complained loudly about all that was lacking in the city’s response to Koreatown needs, there were also whispers heard in these halls—that, at the end of this process, there would be a Korean American vying for a seat in one of these newly drawn council districts. The whispers proved partly true: Not just one person, and not just two, but three Korean Americans would eventually announce their candidacy for the 2013 race for the highly coveted Council District No. 13: John Choi, a former member of the city’s Board of Public Works; BongHwan Kim, general manager of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment; and L.A. Fire Department Deputy Chief Emile Mack. (As of this writing, Kim announced he was dropping out of the race to take a job in San Diego.)

Now instead of rallying behind one person to be the first Korean American elected to the Los Angeles City Council, we would have to choose.

Welcome to Los Angeles’ Koreatown, where it’s not uncommon for church members to splinter off and start their own church, and where there are often 10 chairmen of one board.

“We have a unity problem,” said David Ryu, a longtime local political staffer and one of the organizers in the Korean American community’s redistricting efforts. “There’s division because all the [community] leaders can’t agree.”

Continue Reading »

by EUGENE YI

There will be one fewer person vying to be Los Angeles’ first Korean American city councilmember next year.

BongHwan Kim announced he will be stepping down from his post as general manager of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to accept a position as vice president/executive director of civic engagement with the San Diego Foundation, a philanthropic organization.

“The timing of this opportunity at the San Diego Foundation collided at exactly the same moment as my plans to become the first ever Korean American city councilman running on a public participation vision,” he said in a written statement released online this afternoon, declining to further explain his decision to pursue the foundation position. He did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

The announcement came as a surprise to many Korean Americans in Los Angeles. Continue Reading »

Korean, black communities move on, learning from racial confrontation
Yonhap News

Korean-American Thomas Pak had little idea of the ensuing storm that would be sparked by the encounter last December inside his South Dallas gas station with African-American Jeffrey Muhammad.

Their exchange was relatively brief, but if some accounts are to be believed, it was also angry and weighed down by racial overtones.

And it launched a months-long boycott of Pak’s business by members of the largely African-American community. Corralled outside his premises, they urged people passing by not to give the 40-year-old their patronage.

Los Angeles: Home Sweet Home
Reuters

Here’s a great photo essay from Reuters photographer Hyungwon Kang.

During the dangerous and unpredictable riots, I too came close to becoming a victim several times. A man with a baseball bat chased me down when I tried to document people looting during the first night. My car was hit with bricks and beer bottles when I drove through Florence & Normandie where other drivers and journalists weren’t so lucky to escape without injuries. My wife was terrified not knowing where I was during the first three days and nights of the riots.

Retired police lieutenant, wife, admit guilt in cafe scheme
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Retired Las Vegas police Lt. Benjamin Kim and his wife, Lisa Kim, have agreed to plead guilty in a scheme to fraudulently obtain a bank loan for the Courthouse Cafe, once a popular restaurant at the Regional Justice Center.

The Kims, who are obtaining a divorce, are to enter guilty pleas to one federal count of misprision of felony “for their concealment of an attempt to commit bank fraud,” according to court papers filed by federal prosecutors that were unsealed on Friday.

In South Korea, a small island town takes on the navy
Los Angeles Times

The military sees Jeju Island as a strategic spot for a naval base. But the town of Gangjeong wants the island and its harbor and coral reefs to stay unchanged.

Fire kills nine at South Korean karaoke bar
AFP via Google News

A fierce blaze swept through a karaoke lounge in a busy commercial district of the South Korean city of Busan, killing nine people including three Sri Lankans, police said on Sunday.

The fire, which broke out on Saturday night, injured 25 others, who were taken to hospital for treatment. One is in a critical condition.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang before smoke quickly engulfed the bar, which has 28 rooms and is on the third floor of a six-storey building in the major southern port city.

Police warn Chinatown of robbing hypnotists
Boston Herald

A 57-year-old Cantonese-speaking woman claims a trio of thieves hypnotized her into giving them $160,000 in life savings in a bizarre scam that has Chinatown leaders raising alarms about bewitching bamboozlers — and experts raising their eyebrows about the victim’s spellbinding tale.

“It seems like it’s something that’s potentially very dangerous,” said Mark Liu, deputy director of Boston’s Chinese Progressive Association. “I think the elderly are particularly vulnerable because they obviously would have a hard time just walking away.”

South Korea Steps Up Fight Against Human Flesh Pills from China
Wall Street Journal

South Korean customs officials are boosting efforts to stamp out illegal smuggling of drugs that are allegedly coming from China. Reason: The drugs supposedly contain human flesh.

Since August, Korean authorities have discovered nearly 17,500 of the human flesh capsules in the luggage of tourists and in international mail, the state-run Korea Customs service said in a statement Monday.

Raiders Sign Offensive Lineman Ed Wang
Raiders.com

The Oakland Raiders have signed offensive lineman Ed Wang, who has played in six career games, all with the Buffalo Bills in 2010.

The 6-5, 321-pound Wang was waived-injured by the Bills last season. He entered the league as the Bills’ fifth-round selection (140th overall) in the 2010 NFL Draft, becoming the first-ever Chinese-American player drafted into the league.

KJ Choi’s gift to The Players
Florida Times-Union

Defending Players champion K.J. Choi bought more than 7,000 “Choco-Pies” from his native South Korea and had them delivered to the TPC Sawgrass. The first shipment was delivered to the volunteer area to thank them for their work on the tournament.

JOIN KOREAM