North Korea vows to end nonaggression pacts with South Korea
Los Angeles Times

North Korea has vowed to nullify nonaggression pacts with South Korea in response to the U.N. Security Council’s new tough sanctions and planned joint South Korea-U.S. military drills.

In addition to voiding the peace agreement, the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the North’s agency in charge of dealing with cross-border affairs with the South, announced in a statement broadcast on state media Friday that it will sever a North-South hotline.

The state-run agency said North Korea “abrogates all agreements on nonaggression reached between the North and the South … [and] also notifies the South side that it will immediately cut off the North-South hotline.”

After Sanctions Vote, 2 Koreas Ratchet Up Attack Threats
New York Times

Angrily responding to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous decision to impose tightened sanctions, North Korea said on Friday that it was nullifying all nonaggression agreements with South Korea, with one of its top generals claiming that his country had nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles ready to blast off.

Matching the harsh warning with a toughened stance, South Korea said Friday that if Pyongyang attacked the South with a nuclear weapon, the government of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be “erased from the earth.”

Tensions on the Korean peninsula: Kim blows up again
The Economist

RUMOURS of fatherhood, and the thrill of having Dennis Rodman, a 51-year-old American basketball has-been, as a new best friend, have done little to mellow Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s young leader. Once again relations between his family’s regime and the outside world have returned to the dangerous script of nuclear provocation, sanctions and threats of war.

On March 6th Kyodo, a Japanese news agency, reported that camouflage netting was being thrown over buses and trains in Pyongyang in readiness for conflict. A day earlier the regime reheated old threats, as America proposed a resolution to the UN Security Council, stiffening sanctions against North Korea for its third nuclear test on February 12th. It said it would scrap the 1953 armistice agreement with America that ended the Korean war (did it forget that it had already scrapped it, in 2009?). It cut off a hotline with American troops in South Korea. And it once again threatened nuclear attack.

Is Kim Jong Un more dangerous than his father?
CNN.com

North Korea’s threat to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the United States has puzzled American officials, who see the regime ramping up its threats and rhetoric.

It’s leading to the belief that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is more unpredictable, more dangerous and harder to read than his late father, Kim Jong Il.

“The new leader is acting in ways a bit more extreme than his father, who was colder and more calculated,” a senior administration official said. “Kim Jong Il was more aware of the off-ramps to end these escalations.

O.C.’s Korean Americans react to North Korea threat
Orange County Register (Calif.)

They’ve heard North Korea’s threats before. Some local Korean Americans are concerned. Many others, however, see it more as political theater.

Orange County’s Korean American community offered mixed reactions to North Korea’s threat to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea. Many said threats by North Korea are so common that it’s hard to take them seriously.

“They talk tough so many times. Nobody takes it literally,” said J.J. Kim, president of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County.

U.S. ambassador hails ‘truly historic’ inauguration of President Park
Yonhap News

The inauguration of President Park Geun-hye last week was “truly historic” for South Korea, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul said Friday, renewing his commitment to closely working with the new government.

“Last week was truly historic for Korea. President Park Geun-hye was inaugurated as South Korea’s first female president,” U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim said of his attendance at the inauguration ceremony in a blog post on the embassy’s Web site.

“President Park has long been a strong supporter of the alliance, and we very much look forward to working with her administration,” Kim said.

Is This the First Digital Image of a North Korean In-Flight Meal?
Jaunted.com

This is an airline meal. It’s not just any airline meal, however; it’s a piece of digital imaging and travel history and it was only created this morning.

David Guttenfelder, Chief Photographer in Asia for the AP, is currently in North Korea on assignment and taking advantage of the newly un-banned 3G network to share some Instagrams from daily life, like this seemingly banal image of his in-flight meal on North Korea’s state airline, Air Koryo.

Kakao chats punishable for defamatory comments
The Korea Times

Spreading unfounded rumors through free mobile chat service KakaoTalk is subject to punishment on the grounds of defamation a court ruled Thursday.

The Seoul court fined a woman 700,000-won for spreading defamatory comments through KakaoTalk.

According to records, the woman made groundless accusations and shared them through Kakao with 13 others.

In another case, a man was given a six-month suspended jail term for insulting his girlfriend. The man had claimed on Kakao that she had a miscarriage after having sex with another man.

Top Chef’s Beverly Kim returns to Kendall College to cook and teach at her alma mater
Chicago Tribune

Around this time last year, Beverly Kim was something of a minor television celebrity on “Top Chef.” Several Saturdays ago, we found Kim calling out dinner orders from a cavernous and modern West Town kitchen, a space that would be the envy of every chef in town. This kitchen even has a 180-degree view of the Chicago skyline.

Kim wore a neckerchief and a tall chef’s hat, attire not seen since French restaurants in the ’80s, and hollered lingo only line cooks understood: “Pick up three amuse!”

Since January and until mid-June, this kitchen is where Kim spends her Tuesday through Saturday nights. The menu is hers; the restaurant isn’t. It’s CUL-249 at Kendall College’s School of Culinary Arts, a course titled fine dining restaurant. It’s an unplanned but welcome surprise, Kim said, as she never thought she’d teach undergraduates at a cooking school in 2013, especially for a chef who was supposed to springboard from a TV show to operating her own restaurant (see: Izard, Stephanie).

PSY to Debut “Gangnam Style” Follow-Up Next Month
TIME.com

Stop making ‘Harlem Shake’ videos, and listen up: South Korean rapper PSY announced today that he is releasing a follow-up to his worldwide hit “Gangnam Style.”

The single is due out Apr. 13, and Psy will perform a concert dubbed “Happening” at the Seoul World Cup Stadium later that night, which will be streamed live on YouTube. PSY, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, delivered the news in Korean, English, Chinese, Thai, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Indonesian subtitles — a sign of how popular “Gangnam Style” has become worldwide.

Hank Conger’s throwing issues could be a concern for Angels
Los Angeles Times

Catcher Hank Conger has sailed two throws to third base into left field this spring. He bounced a late throw to second on Wednesday and nearly hit pitcher Jered Weaver in the head with a throw to second after the Angels pitcher finished his warm-up tosses before an inning.

Conger, a 2006 first-round pick who has spent much of the past three years at triple-A, is ready to hit in the big leagues, and his arm strength is adequate. But to nail down the job as Chris Iannetta’s backup, he’ll need to find a consistent-enough exchange and arm stroke to control a running game. He is still searching.

“On the practice field, he’s making a lot of strides, but at some point you need to bring that consistency into the game,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’re very confident he will, but he has to find it.”

Ryu piles up K’s, but Dodgers’ bats stymied
MLB.com

Dodgers lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu — signed to a six-year contract worth $36 million over the offseason — held the Indians to two runs on three hits in three-plus innings. Ryu piled up five strikeouts, including three consecutive called strikeouts to Ryan Rohlinger, Drew Stubbs and Jason Kipnis in a swift third inning.

“Everything kind of worked for me, including control, command of the pitches,” Ryu said through an interpreter. I was able to execute pitches. Not only the fastball, but other pitches as well.”

Why South Korean Gamers Are So Pissed about SimCity
Kotaku

Upset about the rocky SimCity rollout? Take heart. You are not alone. Gamers in South Korea are also not happy campers. But it’s not just due to the inability to play.

Here’s what happened: When South Korean gamers couldn’t connect to servers, the official SimCity Korean Facebook page called out the country for piracy. You know, EA Korea’s paying customers. Talk about adding insult to injury!

Frankie Faison, Hoon Lee on ‘Cons’ of ‘Banshee’
AP via YouTube

U.N. Approves China-Backed Sanctions on North Korea
New York Times

The United Nations Security Council approved a new regimen of sanctions on Thursday against North Korea for its underground nuclear test last month in a unanimous vote that came just hours after North Korea threatened for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.

The North Korean leadership, which had warned the Security Council not to approve the sanctions, said it was responding to threats already made against it, citing the American-South Korean military exercises currently under way as evidence the allies were preparing for “a nuclear war aimed to mount a pre-emptive strike” on North Korea.

Asian-Americans have their own priorities for immigration reform
Southern California Public Radio

Many observers on Capitol Hill believe that after the sequestration showdown, the White House and Congress will actually make an effort to compromise and pass immigration reform laws this year. And among the voices wanting to make themselves heard in the immigration debate are some who are definitely not speaking Spanish.

The variety of those voices can be heard at the downtown L.A. headquarters of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC). Inside their offices, a multitude of languages are spoken: Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Mandarin, Cantonese, Khmer, Thai, Hindi, Punjabi. It’s a long list that reflects the changing demographics of the L.A. area.

“Between 2000 and 2010, more Asian-Americans became legal permanent residents in California than people from any other ethnic group,” says Betty Hung, APALC’s policy director. “More than folks from Mexico. And there are more immigrants coming from Asia to California than from anywhere else in the world.”

HARA LOSES COUNCIL RACE; CHOI IN RUNOFF; TANAKA RE-ELECTED MAYOR
Rafu Shimpo

Several Asian American candidates compete in local elections.
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In the District 13 council race, John J. Choi will advance to the runoff after finishing second out of 12 candidates. If he wins, he will be only the second Asian American to serve on the City Council (the first was Mike Woo) and the first Korean American. His opponent will be Mitch O’Farrell, co-founder of the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council. The winner will replace Councilmember Eric Garcetti.

In a statement prior to the election, Choi said, “I’m running for City Council in District 13 because we need to break our city free of the grip of special interests and make it work for residents again. I’m committed to making our city work for you by improving city services, creating jobs, and improving our neighborhoods.

Park Si-hoo Discloses All Text Messages in Rape Scandal
Chosun Ilbo

Actor Park Si-hoo, who is accused of raping a young woman last month, has disclosed more text messages which he claims bear out his contention that he was framed.

Park was responding to a move by the woman’s lawyer, who revealed messages she had exchanged with a friend of Park’s who introduced the two. The messages suggested that the woman was surprised to find herself in bed with Park when she regained consciousness after what she claims was a night of heavy drinking.

“The messages were not the full text,” Park’s lawyer said. “If you look at the full Kakao Talk messages, it is evident that there was no force involved in the sex, while [the mutual friend] did not realize that Park and the woman had sex,” the lawyer claimed.

Meet OrderAhead, a New Way to Pay on Android
Wall Street Journal

Meet OrderAhead, a startup that lets you purchase something online through an app with any of its 600 partnered merchants, then go pick it up without having to wait in line or pay for it.

It’s a problem that’s being attacked in multiple ways, whether that’s streamlining the payments process with apps like Square or removing the act of going into a store altogether with local delivery services like Postmates. But delivery isn’t always an option, and sometimes it’s easier to just go to the store — which is where OrderAhead becomes useful.

The company launched about 18 months ago and started with an iPhone app, but just expanded to Android given “incessant demand” from its users, CEO Jeff Byun said. The app’s power users buy three or four things a week through OrderAhead, and its “power merchants” make thousands in revenue each week, he said.

Best Thing We Ate With Tokimonsta: Pastrami Beef Tongue at A-Frame
Zagat.com

Somehow we found ourselves at a table with a bunch of music people at A-Frame last night, all there to listen to a new album by Tokimonsta, aka Jennifer Lee, whose indie electronic/r&b/dance music inspires Roy Choi. That’s the story we got anyway: that the two are friends, Lee a fan of Choi’s food (food in general), and he’s a fan of her music. She told us that they bonded over their mutual love for sul lung tang, a rich oxtail bone soup, at Han Bat in Koreatown, so when it came time to drop her new album, she wanted to throw a “dinner party” for its release at one of his restaurants. Chefs = the new rockstars that rockstars adore.

Choi created a menu that paired various dishes with different tracks, from throwing a mound of peel-and-eat-shrimp and sticky hoisin-glazed ribs on the tables for everyone to dig in with their hands while one of Tokimonsta’s more “chaotic” songs played, to the groovier beats backing up lemongrass clam chowder, charred octopus and that addictive beer-can chicken.

New Guide Details Koreatown’s Best Eats
NBC Southern California

Kimchi is one of those dishes that inspires deep and heartfelt discussion among its fans. Should cabbage, cucumber or radish be the stand-out flavor? Should you enjoy it alone, atop rice, or with meat? And where does one find the best of the best?

If one dish — albeit a very important dish — can inspire such passion among those who love Korean food, imagine the friendly fervor with which a lunch place is discussed, especially here in Southern California.

We are fortunate to be the home to hundreds of excellent Korean restaurants, including those places serving very traditional offerings and those snack-and-go shops that favor a newer approach.

Meet a teen cello champ
Ocala.com (Fla.)

Despite being musically gifted and raised in a musical home with a side of physics, Julia Lee is mostly your typical 13-year-old.

You know, normal stuff.

“I do all the things my friends do,” she said at her parents’ home in Gainesville last week.

S. Korea says it will strike against North’s top leadership if provoked
AP via Washington Post

South Korea’s military warned Wednesday that it would respond to any attack from North Korea with “strong and stern measures” against Pyongyang’s top leadership, in a particularly vivid threat coming after the North vowed to nullify an armistice agreement ending the Korean War.

The tit-for-tat threats could prove to be mere bluster, analysts said. But the rhetoric sets up an especially tense period on the Korean Peninsula, with the U.S. and South Korean militaries set to carry out joint training drills that the North considers a “dangerous nuclear war” maneuver, and with the U.N. Security Council deliberating new sanctions to limit Pyongyang’s weapons program.

Soap opera loving general delivers North Korean ultimatum
Reuters

The new face of North Korea’s military threat to the United States is a man who once disarmed his opponents by narrating sections of his favorite South Korean soap operas during tense negotiations.

Even as he delivered North Korea’s message on Tuesday terminating its armistice with the United States that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, General Kim Yong-chol opted for measured tones rather than the usual harsh rhetoric that characterizes announcements from Pyongyang.

Is the Science Minister Nominee a Great Loss to Korea? [OPINION]
Chosun Ilbo

Kim Jeong-hoon, the Korean American tech entrepreneur and nominee for science minister who pulled out on Monday, says he “lost the desire to sacrifice myself for my country” when he saw political wrangling over the president’s government reorganization plans.

When reporters approached Kim at the airport on Tuesday as he was leaving and asked when he intended to return, Kim responded, “I don’t know.”

Kim was in a way a symbol of President Park Geun-hye’s key campaign pledge to create more jobs and power the country’s growth by promoting the IT and communications industries. But he was also plagued by questions over his close ties to the CIA.

Pamela Chen, Asian American Gay Judge, Appointed To Federal Bench
Huffington Post

After more than thirteen years with the Department of Justice, Pamela Chen has been confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York by the U.S. Senate, making her the first openly gay Asian American to be confirmed as a judge on the federal bench, the HRC is reporting.

President Barack Obama has nominated four openly gay constituents to be confirmed to a federal judgeship with lifetime tenure and Bill Clinton nominated one during his presidency, which makes Chen the fifth. There are four other openly gay nominees currently impending in the Senate.

The Chicago native pledged fairness on the bench during her September 2012 confirmation hearing, the Washington Blade reports.

U.S. soldiers involved in BB gun shooting spree give conflicting testimonies
Yonhap News

Two American soldiers who are accused of shooting a BB gun into crowds and fleeing in a car gave different accounts Wednesday over who drove the car at high speeds and tried to hit a police officer chasing them.

Three soldiers from the 8th U.S. Army are under investigation by South Korean police after they shot a BB gun at pedestrians in the multicultural Itaewon district late Saturday night and fled in a car, leading to the police pursuit.

Nick buys Korean short-form comedy
Television Business International

The networks have picked up pay TV rights to season one of Larva (104x2mins), a non-dialogue 3D CGI comedy that comes from Seoul-based Tuba Entertainment.

Larva is a slapstick comedy revolving around a pair of sewer dwelling worms who find entertainment and challenges through the various items and animals that fall through the pavement cracks into their habitat.

A second season, which will be 52×4’ and will move the action to a small rundown house wedged in between two New York high-rise buildings, is currently in production.

How much profit did SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment earn in 2012?
allkpop

SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment revealed their Fiscal Year 2012 Earning Results.

The two companies released their total sales, revenue, and net profit for 2012. These results are tentative as an independent auditor needs to audit the earnings report for the stock holders, however, no big changes from the initial results are expected.

SM Entertainment, maintains their claim as the biggest label in the entertainment industry. They reported revenue of 168,560,155,987 KRW (approximately $154 million USD), which is a 53.5% increase from 2011. Deducting the wages of the workers and production costs from the revenue brings in 47,821,232,494 KRW (approximately $44 million USD), which is a 133.2% increase from 2011. The net profit (after calculating all expenses) has also increased 125.4% since 2011 to reach 37,177,156,185 KRW (approximately $34 million USD).

Universal Music’s K-pop boy band to debut this year
Yonhap News

Universal Music Group, the largest music corporation in the world, will launch its first K-pop band project in the local market in the first half of this year, with the ultimate goal of making it a global idol group, the U.S. firm’s Korean branch said Tuesday.

“Boys Republic is the first K-pop group organized directly by Universal,” Universal Music Korea said. “The team has received two years of training for acting and learning customs of many countries as well as singing and dancing to become a global idol group.”

The group is composed of five South Korean members but personal details of the members, including their names and ages, will be disclosed later, the company said.

Ryu Hyun-jin to Face Test Against Indians
Chosun Ilbo

Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers will face the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game on Thursday.

The Dodgers will be split into two teams to face the Indians and the Mexican national team from the World Baseball Classic.

Though the Dodgers have not yet officially announced their starting pitcher, the Indians said their starting pitcher Justin Masterson would face Ryu.

What Asia’s Best Restaurants List Tells Us About South Korea
Wall Street Journal

Following the publication of S. Pellegrino Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list last week there has been some criticism of the omission of South Korean restaurants. Rather than gripe about Korea’s non-representation, I think it’s better to recognize why Korean restaurants don’t feature in the list and go from there.

First, let’s be clear about the value of this list. It is a largely a marketing stunt and one which is flawed on its face as it doesn’t include a single restaurant from Beijing – one of the food capitals of Asia. It favors Singapore, where, by chance, the launch event was held.

It is also focused on a certain type of experience–Western style dining with an emphasis on innovative or progressive cuisine.

Is this the world’s most awesome taxi?
CNN Travel

Korean “garden taxi” has massage seats, karaoke machine, running fountain and big plans to take over Seoul
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If he has his way, all the taxis in Seoul would become what he calls “garden taxis.”

Following his own cab, the city’s taxis would be outfitted with flowers, grass, live goldfish, massage seats and a mini-karaoke machine (he does the singing in his own cab, upon request).

After retiring seven years ago from a career as director of a local electronics company, Chung began driving a taxi. He bought a massage device online for US$200, cut a large hole in the backseat and installed the device by hooking it up to the car’s electrical system.

Kim Jong-un and Ri Sol-ju in July 2012. Photo via CBS.

After Ri Sol-ju, Kim Jong-un’s wife, was seen in February wearing a slim fitting suit, speculation soared on whether or not the couple had their first child.

South Korea now confirms Ri did give birth to a child last year, according to reports from Fox News. Ri, who is the only wife of the Kim family to be seen publicly, was spotted with what appeared to be a baby bump in the summer of 2012.

Continue Reading »

US, China propose tough sanctions against North Korea for latest nuclear test
AP via Washington Post

The world moved closer to punishing North Korea for its latest nuclear test Tuesday as the United States introduced a draft resolution, backed by China, with new sanctions aimed at reining in Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and preventing their export to other countries.

In response, Pyongyang threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

The draft resolution would subject North Korea “to some of the toughest sanctions imposed by the United Nations,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters. She called the scope of the sanctions “exceptional.”

North Korea Threatens to Attack U.S. with ‘Lighter and Smaller Nukes’
New York Times

North Korea said on Tuesday that it would cut off a hot line with the United States military in South Korea, calling the truce that stopped the Korean War in 1953 null and void and threatening to strike the United States with “lighter and smaller nukes.”

North Korea had many times said it was nullifying the Korean War Armistice that stopped, but did not officially end, the three-year war. When it wanted to raise tensions in the past, it had also cut off, and later restored, the military hot line that the American-led United Nations Command maintained with North Korea through the truce village of Panmunjom north of the South Korean capital, Seoul, to help avoid armed conflicts on the divided peninsula.

North Korea Gets a Scolding Over Rodman Visit
Wall Street Journal

Dennis Rodman returned from North Korea this weekend with a message that leader Kim Jong Eun really wants to talk to President Barack Obama. But so far, the only communications seem to be between the White House and State Department, which offered nearly identical responses at press briefings Monday.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney dismissed the idea President Obama would call the North Korean leader, saying the U.S. “has direct channels of communications with the DPRK.” And he chastised North Korea for hosting the event in the first place. “Instead of spending money on celebrity sporting events to entertain the elites of that country, the North Korean regime should focus on the well-being of its own people who have been starved, imprisoned, and denied their human rights,” he said.

Seoul, Washington must take Rodman visit to Pyongyang ‘seriously’: ex-U.S. envoy
Yonhap News

South Korea and the United States should take a recent visit by flamboyant retired NBA star Dennis Rodman to North Korea “seriously” because it appears to signal a renewed engagement with both Seoul and Washington, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul said Tuesday.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, Donald Gregg said a “call me” message from North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-un to U.S. President Barack Obama, relayed by Rodman, is a “very powerful signal to engage with us.”

DENNIS RODMAN AND DIPLOMATIC DYSTOPIA
The New Yorker

The United States’ new top diplomat made his first official trip overseas last week, becoming the highest-profile American to visit with a young and enigmatic totalitarian dictator since the dictator was installed in power following the death of his father. After his trip, the diplomat, who, years before, had been a talented athlete, and who once wore a wedding dress to a press event promoting his autobiography, returned home and explained the nuances of the leader’s worldview to a high-ranking member of a recent Presidential Administration who now hosts a morning variety show. The diplomat brought good news: the dictator had promised peace, which in translation came out as, “I don’t want to do war. I don’t want to do war.”

James Pak pleads not guilty to Biddeford murders
WLBZ (Bangor, Maine)

A landlord charged with killing his two tenants over a parking dispute in Biddeford has pleaded not guilty.

James Pak is facing two counts of murder in the deaths of 19-year old Derrick Thompson and his girlfriend 18-year old Alivia Welch.

U.S. Soldiers in High-Speed Car Chase Admit Crimes
Chosun Ilbo

Two U.S. soldiers accused of firing a BB gun at pedestrians in the Itaewon bar district in Seoul and leading police on a high-speed police car chase have admitted to the crimes, police said Monday.

A third soldier is being treated for a bullet wound he sustained when a police patrolman fired three rounds from his pistol seeking to end the car chase.

Yongsan police have asked the U.S. military to hand over the bullet as evidence and also plan to subject all three to drug tests.

Caught in North Korea, Sold in China, Crabs Knit Two Economies
New York Times

At the Red Sun restaurant, a short-order joint on Crab and Beer Streets, live crabs with plump legs wriggle in a cooled tank, fresh from the North Korean coast just two and a half hours away by road.

The cook and owner, Jin Yuansheng, douses the prized crabs in boiling water and adds them to the steaming platters of sea cucumbers, shrimp and squid, also from North Korean waters, that he brings to the table.

This border town in China’s cold and poor northeast abuts North Korea along the icy Tumen River, where a bridge serves as the gateway for a lively commerce in shellfish plumbed from the Sea of Japan off North Korea. It is an exotic niche business in the more than $11 billion annual trade between North Korea and China, which is dominated by China’s purchases of cheap North Korean iron ore and coal.

From poor island boy to multi-business entrepreneur, Korean expat plans for more
Yonhap News

It’s not every day that you get a pair of iconic, reclusive, but immaculately tailored artists peering through your windows. But when precisely that happened to Lee Ki-chul, at his London store Hurwundeki, the Korean expat-turned-entrepreneur didn’t bat an eye.

“A surprised customer came to me one day, saying that (renowned British artists) Gilbert & George were hanging onto the windowsill, glancing at the shop. They eventually came in and complimented the interior of the shop, especially the stripped walls,” says Lee, at his hair salocafe, near Bethnal Green Station in East London.

“After that day, the pair came almost every day and we all became friends. (Model) Kate Moss and (rock singer) Pete Doherty often came to the clothes shop. It received so much attention when I first opened, it was beyond anything I had ever imagined.”

A Q&A with Stoker Director Park Chan-wook
TIME.com

Having already made such celebrated and controversial movies as Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Korean director Park Chan-wook just saw the release of his first Hollywood film, Stoker. The filmmaker sat down with TIME, and speaking through a translator, discussed his new movie, Oldboy, and the challenges of working in a foreign country.

Q: You’ve had other opportunities to make American films. What were your reservations about making this transition?

A: When I say that I am going to do an American film, I didn’t want to suddenly go off into a completely different world that which bears no relation to the style of filmmaking that I’m used to.

‘Gangnam Style’ remix released
KansasCity.com

Move over Harlem Shake. “Gangnam Style” is back.

Yes, just when you thought it was safe to go back on YouTube, Republic Records today released an EP remix of the viral dance hit with four tracks – a Diplo remix featuring 2 Chainz and Tyga, an Afrojack remix and two instrumentals.

South Korea Beats Taiwan But Gets Eliminated Anyway
Baseball America

South Korea improved to 14-5 all-time in World Baseball Classic play Tuesday, rallying for three runs in the eighth and beating host Taiwan 3-2 to move to 2-1 in the 2013 WBC.

And yet that is the end of the tournament for Korea, which was eliminated despite the victory. Taiwan, the Netherlands and Korea all went 2-1 in Pool B, while Australia went 0-3. Using the TBQ formula the WBC employs to break three-way ties—essentially distilling runs scored and runs allowed versus each other—South Korea lost out to Taiwan and the Netherlands, which advance to the second round.

Justin Chon Had To Pick Out His Prosthetic Penis
Conan

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