North Korea Tones Down Language, Giving Hope for Dialogue
New York Times

By North Korean standards, the invective issued over the past week has bordered on civil. Instead of near daily threats of nuclear annihilation for the “nest of evil” in the United States and promises to “press the button,” the North in recent days has grumbled over a “crafty ploy” and “cunning trick” by America and its allies to strip the North of its nuclear arsenal.

The United States and South Korea, meanwhile, have made a change of their own: putting a new focus on offering talks after weeks of meeting North Korean provocations with harsh warnings that included deploying nuclear-capable stealth bombers on a practice run over South Korea.

Security analysts in South Korea and the United States expressed cautious optimism this week that the shift in tone, however understated, is a sign that after weeks of escalating threats that raised fears of armed conflict, both sides might be ready to calm tensions.

Obama says he doesn’t believe North Korea has nuclear missile
CNN

President Barack Obama has said he doesn’t believe North Korea can fit a nuclear warhead on a missile, casting strong doubt on an alarming assessment disclosed last week by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm.

And he warned the young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that weeks of threats against the United States and South Korea had only served to isolate the regime further.

U.S. spy chief: No uniform intelligence on what’s happening in N. Korea
Yonhap News

Speaking with unusual candor in public about the U.S. ability to know what’s happening in North Korea, James Clapper, chief of the U.S. intelligence community, said there is a difference on the level of confidence among his agencies with regard to the communist nation.

On the controversy over whether Pyongyang has nuclear warheads to be delivered by missiles, he said it’s still too early to confirm that the reclusive country has mastered the technology.

“North Korea has not fully developed, tested or demonstrated the full range of capabilities necessary for a nuclear-armed missile,” Clapper said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Queens Koreans aren’t too worried
Queens Chronicle (N.Y.)

For all the talk about North Korea’s possible ability to deliver a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, there appears to be only a slight fear of war breaking out in the region — at least among members of the Korean community in Queens.

And for all his bluster, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who took over that country’s reins upon the death of his father late in 2011, doesn’t even seem to be rattling many nerves. In fact, the extent of his power is being questioned by many.

South Korean Intelligence Officers Are Accused of Political Meddling
New York Times

At least two agents from the South Korean National Intelligence Service illegally posted comments online criticizing the political opposition ahead of the December presidential election, the police said on Thursday in an interim report on an investigation into accusations of political meddling.

In Psy’s musical wake, K-pop tries substance over style in star search
Reuters

Singing a duet in front of thousands of fans with South Korean rapper Psy, a world sensation for his “Gangnam Style” and “Gentleman” videos, would be heady for any singer, much less one who’s only 16 years old and has just launched her first album.

But the soulful-voiced Lee Hi, like Psy, has been breaking rules for the K-pop music industry since her discovery in an amateur talent show two years ago, including looking more like the girl next door than a diva.

South Korea’s love affair with pretty boy bands and doll-like girl groups may be starting to crack and its music industry is becoming more willing to experiment with talented and less lovingly groomed stars, following Psy’s megahit “Gangnam Style,” YouTube’s most popular song with over 1.5 billion hits.

‘Stuck Elevator’ review: Top-flight
San Francisco Chronicle

Creative riches explode from one small, claustrophobic space in “Stuck Elevator,” the extraordinary musical that opened Tuesday at American Conservatory Theater. Within the story of a trapped deliveryman and a mere 80 minutes, composer Byron Au Yong, librettist Aaron Jafferis and director Chay Yew pack an epic’s worth of inspired music and inspirational content, performances and design.

It’s also unusually timely, though, as Artistic Director Carey Perloff noted in a brief curtain speech, no one could have planned the world premiere to open the same week Congress finally took up immigration reform. “Elevator” is Au Yong, Jafferis and Yew’s tuneful, thoughtful riff on the true story of undocumented immigrant Ming Kuang Chen, a Chinese-food deliveryman who became trapped in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours in 2005. The result is a vibrant opera-musical theater hybrid with a story both personally compelling and eye-opening.

Half the drama – the part in much-abridged real life – is virtually a duet between golden-toned Julius Ahn as takeout deliveryman Guang and the confining, moving platforms within the towering skeletal elevator shaft that dominates Daniel Ostling’s remarkable set. The other half, which occupies more stage time, takes place within Guang’s mind as four versatile actors embody his memories, fears, fantasies and nightmares in the ever-more fanciful costumes of Myung Hee Cho.

The ever-changing flavor of L.A.’s Koreatown
CNN

World-renowned chef, author and Emmy winning television personality Anthony Bourdain visits Los Angeles’ Koreatown in the next episode of “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” airing Sunday, April 21, at 9 p.m. ET. Follow the show on Twitter and Facebook.

Roy Choi created a brave new world of gastronomy almost single-handedly with his Los Angeles-based Kogi BBQ taco truck.

A Korean-American who grew up on the fringes of Mexican and hip hop culture, Choi’s food reflects a new American idea of natural fusion – culinary influences that grew up next to and with each other.

In this episode of “Parts Unknown,” Anthony Bourdain examines the meeting point of Asian, Latino, Mexican and even Bangladeshi culture in modern L.A. Koreatown.

Shin-Soo Choo leads Reds to fourth consecutive win
AP via ESPN

Tony Cingrani might have been a little too relaxed for his first big league start. With the way the Reds have been hitting, that’s understandable.

Shin-Soo Choo singled, doubled and scored twice, helping Cingrani get a victory in his starting debut, and the Reds won their fourth in a row by beating the Miami Marlins 11-1 on Thursday night.

Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu gets the start, and first endorsement deal
Los Angeles Times

Hyun-Jin Ryu will be attempting to snap the Dodgers’ four-game losing streak Friday in Baltimore and win his third consecutive game.

But he’s already nabbed one early prize. Just three games into his major league career, he’s signed his first endorsement deal.

Ryu has joined fellow South Korean Shin Soo Choo as a spokesman for Hanmi Bank. Hanmi Bank specializes in the Korean-American community and has 27 branches throughout most of California.

Shop MTV News Correspondent SuChin Pak’s Closet (I’ll Race You to the Fendi Sandals!)
Glamour.com

First of all, SuChin has posted more than 50 designer pieces on the online consignment site, which means lots of opportunities to score a fun, fancy new item (at a much lower price than on regular retail sites or brick-and-mortar stores). She’s also made a two-tone Alexander Wang dress and bright green Opening Ceremony dress up for grabs. Here are a few more items she’s willing to part with:

ReadingMate Lets You Read on the Treadmill
Photonics.com

Do you ever get bored running endless miles on a treadmill and wish that you could read while working out? Well, now you can, thanks to a new system that steadies text on a display so you can read it as you sweat through the miles.

The system, called ReadingMate, counteracts the bobbing motion of a runner’s head by adjusting text on a monitor so that it appears still, said Ji Soo Yi, an assistant professor of industrial engineering and director of the Healthcare and Information Visualization Engineering Lab at Purdue University.

“Not many people can run and read at the same time,” said Yi, who developed the system with doctoral candidate Bum chul Kwon. “This is because the relative location of the eyes to the text is vigorously changing, and our eyes try to constantly adjust to such changes, which is burdensome.”

Hey Glenn (THE WALKING DEAD TRIBUTE SONG – SPOILERS)
YOMYOMF via YouTube

North Korea warns foreigners to leave South Korea
Los Angeles Times

North Korea’s state-run Asia Pacific Peace Committee warned foreigners in South Korea Tuesday to set up evacuation plans.

State media KCNA carried a statement, saying Pyonyang does not want any harm done to foreigners in South Korea in case of a war and urging “all foreign organizations, companies and tourists to work out measures for evacuation.”

Analysts, however, said that a war is unlikely, dismissing the announcement as yet another threat by Kim Jong Un’s belligerent regime.

Don’t be afraid, Seoul’s message to tourists
CNN

“So, how can we promote Seoul as a safe destination in the foreign media in the midst of the current North Korea situation?”

That was the question posed by a Seoul government foreign public relations representative at a meeting on Monday, even as Pyongyang continued its militaristic rhetoric, announcing on the same day that North Korea is pulling workers out of a joint North-South industrial zone.

Fearing both short and long term drops in tourism, the Seoul government was seeking advice at a meeting it requested with North Korea expert Andrei Lankov, a professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University.

State Department to Americans: No need to leave South Korea
Foreign Policy

“The U.S. Embassy informs U.S. citizens that despite current political tensions with North Korea there is no specific information to suggest there are imminent threats to U.S. citizens or facilities in the Republic of Korea (ROK),” the April 4 advisory said. “The Embassy has not changed its security posture and we have not recommended that U.S. citizens who reside in, or plan to visit, the Republic of Korea take special security precautions at this time.”

At Tuesday’s State Department press briefing, reporters asked Spokesman Patrick Ventrell whether Pyongyang’s latest threat to Americans in South Korea would lead to any change in the State Department’s advice to American citizens there. Ventrell said it would not.

LA’s Korean community warily watches North Korean threats
Southern California Public Radio

The escalating rhetoric coming out of North Korea these days has some Korean-Americans in Los Angeles on edge; others see it as Pyongyang’s typical bluster.

Michael Won is a staff writer for the Korea Daily, a Korean language newspaper that circulates L.A. and nine other American cities. His mother lives just south of the North Korean border. He’s been calling her more often lately. He says his friends are too: “They are calling their parents more often, just to check out whether they’re emotionally stable and whether they’re not affected.”

Won says he’s never heard a North Korean leader threaten to attack the U.S. so overtly. Won adds that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s age — he’s believed to be around 30 years old — makes him nervous. “I think were all worried because he’s so young,” Won says. “It makes it very hard to predict what he’s going to do next.”

Annandale’s Korean-Americans react to increasing tensions
WJLA (Va.)

Local radio station WKBC has seen a spike in listeners in light of the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Station manager Yong Sik Lee says more people are tuning in to the news instead of music. The station has even recently launched an app so listeners can monitor the news on the go.

Caught in the middle: Asian immigrants struggle to stay in America
CNN

It should have been a happy day for Raymond Jose: He had been accepted to college, with scholarships to help pay for it.
But when he told his parents, his mother started to cry.

“I was puzzled why she was crying after hearing such great news,” said Jose, who was to attend Montgomery College in Maryland. “That was when she started to explain to me we were undocumented, that we had overstayed our tourist visas.”

Jose’s family had come to the United States from the Philippines in 2000, when Jose was 9. They first lived in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area but moved four years later to Maryland. Jose had been assimilated into American life and culture and didn’t know that he was undocumented until that day. When he found out, he was heartbroken. His undocumented status prevented him from using scholarship money to help pay for school.

Fort Lee looks to honor comfort women with memorial
Fort Lee Suburbanite (N.J.)

When two Japanese delegations arrived in Palisades Park last spring to persuade the town to remove a stone plaque dedicated to the plight of comfort women, a curious thing happened. Towns across the country, outraged by the demands, began planning monuments of their own.

On April 27, Fort Lee will become the third municipality in the country to bring those plans to fruition, erecting an 8-foot tall memorial to the 200,000 women and girls, mostly Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The memorial takes inspiration from South Korea’s Peace Monument, a bronze, life-size statue of a comfort girl, clad in traditional Korean dress, that sits across the street from the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

Finalists for LA City Council’s CD13 get backing from former opponents
Southern California Public Radio

O’Farrell will face former Public Works Commissioner John Choi in the May 21 runoff. Last week, Choi was backed by former candidate Matt Szabo. Monday he was endorsed by Assembly Speaker John Pérez.

“John Choi is a leader with the vision and the plans to create jobs, help solve L.A.’s budget crisis, and make sure essential programs like after-school enrichment and police are protected and expanded,” Pérez said in a statement.

“The Walking Dead” Star Steven Yeun Wrote a Short Story After Listening to Kid Cudi’s “Indicud”
Complex Magazine

Kid Cudi’s new album, Indicud, hits stores in two weeks. Thanks to a leak (that Cudi isn’t even mad about), many fans have been able to give it a listen. The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun is one of those fans, but he actually got to check out the project during a private studio session with Cudi. The record inspired him to write a trippy little short story, which you can read below, along with some context about his experience before and after hearing the LP.

‘The Language Archive’ review: Tongue-tied
San Francisco Chronicle

Hope in love and other matters is pretty elusive in Julia Cho’s poignantly comic “The Language Archive.” It isn’t that these people are incapable of loving each other. They just can’t find the words to say so in the rocky but beguiling Symmetry Theatre production at the Berkeley City Club.

That’s particularly true for linguist George (Gabriel Grilli). Though fluent in many tongues and eloquent about dying languages, he can’t communicate with his wife. Not that Mary (Elena Wright) makes it easy. Apart from weeping and scattering cryptic notes, which she denies having written, her only clear statement is, “I’m leaving you.” As she does.

Shin-Soo Choo’s offense, defense a study in contrast
CBS Sports

For much of Monday’s game in St. Louis, it appeared Reds center fielder Shin-Soo Choo was destined to be the goat.

With two outs in the first inning, Choo was unable to haul in a Yadier Molina fly ball and two Cardinals players scored. In the sixth inning — again with two outs and Molina batting — Choo again committed an error that led to a Cardinals run.

So through six innings, the Reds trailed the Cardinals 4-2 and three of the four St. Louis runs could have been prevented with good defense in center. And this appears to be an ongoing issue with Choo.

Though he entered the game with zero errors, Choo has had a few instances where it’s been apparent he’s still not completely settled in center — remember, he moved to center from right field for this season. Just from eyeballing his play, going back on the ball presents an issue and he often turns several times as he’s running back. On opening day, there was a Peter Bourjos triple in the 12th inning that Choo badly misplayed.

North Korea Moves Missile to Coast, but Limited Threat Seen
New York Times

South Korea’s defense chief said on Thursday that North Korea had moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerable” range, but that it was not capable of reaching the United States. The disclosure came as the Communist North’s military warned that it was ready to strike American military forces with “cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means.”

North Korea has been issuing a blistering series of similar threats in recent weeks, citing as targets the American military installations in the Pacific islands of Hawaii and Guam, as well as the United States mainland. In its latest threat on Thursday, it did not name targets but said it was authorized to “take powerful, practical military counteractions” against the threats from B-2 bombers from the United States, B-52 bombers from Guam and F-22 Stealth jet fighters from United States bases in Japan that have recently run missions over the Korean Peninsula during joint military exercises with South Korea.

As N. Korean threats intensify, first signs of jitters in the South
Washington Post

This bustling South Korean capital has been defined for decades as a place of traffic jams and luxury shopping malls, long days of work and longer nights of sipping rice liquor. Residents rarely behaved as though their routines could be upended in minutes by the Kim regime to the north and its 10,000 artillery pieces.

But after years of largely ignoring threats from North Korea, some residents say they are becoming a bit jittery, with the ascension of an unpredictable young leader in Pyongyang and levels of fury not seen since the early 1990s.

Chung Woo-taik

Calls in South Korea for Envoy to North
Wall Street Journal

As North Korea’s barrage of war-like threats shows no sign of easing, some South Korean policy makers are cautiously suggesting that their government move more actively to bring the tension to a peaceful end, with some calling for Seoul to send a representative to the North.

“As part of pre-emptive diplomacy, we should consider sending a special envoy to North Korea,” Chung Woo-taik, one of six members of the Supreme Council of the ruling New Frontier Party, said Thursday in an interview. “We need to deal with them sternly should there be any provocation, but at the same time, we need to open various channels including an envoy to find out what their true intentions are.”

Family a Priority for Immigration Reform Advocates
ABC News/Univision

Immigration reform advocates are pushing Congress to be inclusive of immigrants’ families when drafting immigration reform.

The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) kicked off a month-long photography contest Tuesday to highlight the role of family in immigrant communities. The contest “We Are America, America Is Home” seeks to create a visual narrative of all types of families who call the United States home.

Participants are encouraged to submit photos online by April 30, 2013. Photos will be shared with members of Congress and used to promote NAKASEC’s family campaign, according to NAKASEC staff.

‘The Walking Dead’ actor, K-College grad Steven Yeun talks strippers, basketball and Michigan on Conan O’Brien
MLive.com (Mich.)

Yeun now lives in Atlanta, Ga., where the NCAA college basketball Final Four will be held this weekend. The University of Michigan is one of four teams left in the tournament, which is broadcast by CBS and its sister stations, including TBS, home of Conan O’Brien’s show.

Yeun seems to have a natural chemistry with the talk show host. He appeared last year and poked fun at himself for his lack of facial hair. During his latest spot on the show, he donned something similar to a mustache.

Among the highlights of his stint on Conan O’Brien, Yeun cited the Clermont Lounge, a strip club, as one of his favorite places in Atlanta. He also talked about basketball. O’Brien asked if he was excited about the Wolverines. Yeun said yes but added, “Personally, I root for Michigan State with basketball.”

Psy’s “Gentleman” [music video] to star Yoo Jae Suk, Noh Hong Chul, HaHa, and Brown Eyed Girls’ Ga In?
allkpop

Remember Psy‘s epic performance during ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve‘ with Yoo Jae Suk, Noh Hong Chul, and HaHa? Well if you enjoyed the trio performing alongside Psy, you’ll be glad to hear that they’ll be featured in Psy’s “Gentleman” MV!

Yoo Jae Suk and Noh Hong Chul already made cameos in the video for “Gangnam Style“, but now HaHa will join them to add to the fun in the highly anticipated music video!

The trio have been confirmed by YG Entertainment themselves through a press release, so we can expect them for sure. In addition, it’s rumored that the female singer who will join Psy this time around is none other than Brown Eyed Girls‘ Ga In, who also has a solo comeback of her own coming up.

Tokimonsta Leaves the Nest
LA Weekly

But [Jennifer] Lee’s career is proceeding apace. Half Shadows is her second full-length LP and first on dance-music label Ultra, whose roster includes David Guetta, Deadmau5 and Calvin Harris. These are, perhaps, strange bedfellows for an elite member of L.A.’s electronic underground; indeed, she initially rebuffed offers from the EDM mega-label. She eventually relented, however, when Ultra “convinced me that they cared.”

“Nothing is overbearing,” she says of the deal. “They’re not trying to put scantily clad girls all over my album.”

This major-label release brings Tokimonsta to audiences far beyond the Low End scene. At least, she hopes it does. “Everyone wants to go beyond the beat scene,” Lee says. “If they don’t say it publicly, they’re thinking it.”

Reds to keep Choo as permanent center fielder
MLB.com

As the Reds adjust to an outfield without injured left fielder Ryan Ludwick, there was no thought from manager Dusty Baker in moving Shin-Soo Choo over from center field.

Choo, who was acquired in an offseason trade from the Indians, was primarily a corner outfielder throughout his career. Ludwick’s replacement in left field, Chris Heisey, has extensive experience in center field.

Orange Fanatics: Chris Kang is the biggest SU fan living in South Korea
Syracuse.com

I may be a typical 30-year-old Korean man who works at a Korean corporate company in Seoul, but I promise I am the biggest Syracuse University supporter in Korea, maybe in whole Asia.

My father is a public administration professor here, and I first got to see SU basketball when I was in second grade of elementary school when my father took my family to Syracuse University as an exchange professor. We lived in Syracuse from late 1989 to 1992 and I attended the public elementary school in that area.

My father took me to the Carrier Dome for the first time in 1990, and I was just fascinated by what I witnessed. I was an 8-year-old who didn’t know much about basketball at that time, but after I saw Dave Johnson make a reverse dunk I was deeply tied with Orange basketball forever. I just fell in love with the style of the team and the atmosphere of the Dome at such a young age.

The Masters: John Huh talks about his first time
CBS Sports

John Huh recently talked to me about his first trip to the Masters. Huh qualified by finishing in the top 30 of the 2012 PGA Tour money list (28th).

Kyle Porter: What are you most excited about in playing your first Masters?

John Huh: The thing I’m most excited about is … playing the Masters, you know? Playing one of the most historical golf tournaments and courses.

Porter: Have you played the course before?

Huh: No. I had a chance to go out there the week of the Arnold Palmer, but I didn’t.

Porter: Why did you choose not to go?

Huh: I was kind of burned out playing golf, so I was trying to take it slow.

Here’s the Cover of L.A. Son, Roy Choi’s Upcoming Book
Eater National

Hot off the Eaterwire, here’s the cover for Los Angeles chef Roy Choi’s upcoming book, L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food. The book, which was co-written by Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan with photos by Bobby Fisher, will be the second publication from Anthony Bourdain’s line of books for Ecco. (The first is Daniel Vaughn’s Prophets of Smoked Meat, out in May.)

North Korea puts rockets on standby to ‘mercilessly strike’ the U.S.
CNN.com

North Korea’s leader approved a plan to prepare standby rockets to hit U.S. targets, state media said Friday, after American stealth bombers carried out a practice mission over South Korea.

In a meeting with military leaders early Friday, Kim Jong Un “said he has judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation,” the state-run KCNA news agency reported.

The rockets are aimed at U.S. targets, including military bases in the Pacific and in South Korea, it said.

Global Powers Cast Wary Eye as Korean Tension Escalates
New York Times

North Korean state media said Friday that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, had ordered his missile units to be ready to strike the United States and South Korea, which South Korean officials said could signal either preparations for missile tests or just more blustering.

The United States criticized the North Korean threat, which came one day after American forces had carried out an unusual practice bombing exercise with advanced aircraft across South Korea.

“The United States is fully capable of defending itself and our allies,” said Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson, a Pentagon spokeswoman in Washington.”North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric and threats follow a pattern designed to raise tensions and intimidate others.”

THE KOREAN CRISIS: KIM’S DANGEROUS GAME
The New Yorker

Because we do not generally associate the Russian political class with understatement, it was easy to miss Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov’s observation, this week, that things in North Korea could potentially “descend into the spiral of a vicious cycle.” If the Russians—who have vastly more knowledge of the new North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, than we do—are concerned that things are about to get worse, we should brace for a long spring.

The crisis on the Korean peninsula has descended so steadily, amid so many other hot zones competing for attention, and with such a sense of déjà vu about it, that it’s easy to lose sight of how North Korea’s threats to the United States and South Korea are now being made, as Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations put it, on “unprecedented levels and with greater intensity than ever before.” It is now at its most acute moment in years.

Threats of annihilation normal for South Koreans
CNN.com

Nowhere is there the slightest inkling that anyone in this second largest metropolitan area in the world — is fearful or even anxious about the stream of threats emanating from North Korea.

Just as sure as spring is coming, most seem to find it entirely normal that warnings of thermonuclear war, annihilation and utter devastation punctuate this, the season of joint U.S., South Korean military maneuvers.

“We are post-war, we don’t worry about that,” a journalist specializing in local news told me. “We take it for granted.” He was just one of about 30 reporters I met in a session discussing news in the South Korean capital this week.

Local Leaders Favor O’Farrell
Los Feliz Ledger (Calif.)

Stating his support for O’Farrell, he said, “He knows the district so much better than John Choi and clearly isn’t a ‘carpet bagger’ having just moved in within the last year. He’s been honest, productive and effective when dealing with community issues and has a longer track record of doing so than Choi,” said Lukens.

Samsung’s Employees Listen to K-Pop All Day Every Day
The Atlantic

The likes of “Gangnam Style” reverberate across the grounds of Samsung’s flagship cellphone factory, the Gumi complex just south of Seoul — and the K-Pop blares all day long, which kind of sounds like a mellow version of torture to this American worker. “Korean pop music seems to be everywhere outside, usually coming from outdoor speakers disguised as rocks,” writes Sam Grobart, in his new Bloomberg Businessweek cover story on “How Samsung Became the World’s No. 1 Smartphone Maker.”

While the sweet sounds of any type of music throughout the work day seems like an irritating fixture at any place of work, if a little dystopian, it apparently soothes the South Korean tech giant’s worker bees. “The music, a Samsung spokeswoman explains, is selected by a team of psychologists to help reduce stress among employees,” Grobart continues. So maybe hearing a little Beyoncé while walking around the office park wouldn’t be such a terrible idea over here.

‘THE WALKING DEAD’ STAR STEVEN YEUN ON SUNDAY’S FINALE, AND THAT “INTERESTING” PROPOSAL
Hollywood.com

During last week’s tearjerker installment of The Walking Dead, Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) offered a brief respite from the heartbreaking violence when Glenn got down on one knee and proposed to his typically covered in dirt and guts lady love. Oh wait, no he didn’t. He chopped a finger off a dead lady, grabbed her diamond ring, and put it, silently, in Maggie’s hand — right before they headed to a (sure to be) epic battle to the death.

Some fans were upset that Glenn didn’t “say the words,” but Yeun has a thing or two to say about the backlash he’s received from that scene.

“If you don’t get it, you don’t get it,” Yeun tells Hollywood.com, before explaining that Glenn and Maggie’s precarious lifestyle did not call for your typical wordy proposal. “You’ve got to think about the world that they’re in — what’s coming to them. I think there’s an understanding that all of that pomp and circumstance is out the door at this point… [and] it’s not a thought that they haven’t talked about on their down time. Like, ‘Oh, it’d be so nice if it were the old world, we could get married and it would be awesome.’ It’s not something they can do now. For them it’s like, ‘It is what it is. It’s you and me.’ It was a mutual understanding for Glenn to go up to her and give her [the ring]. He puts it in her hands, and she knows.”

‘OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN’: NOT EVEN ONE ASIAN AMERICAN FACE? REALLY?
Rafu Shimpo

Even “Rising Sun” had more racial balance! In “Red Dawn,” though he appeared somewhat late in the picture, Ken Choy was one of the paratroopers who helped the resistance. Hell, in “Pearl Harbor,” there was a Japanese American doctor helping the wounded for about five seconds. That’s five seconds more than we got in “Olympus.”

If there was a movie about radical Jews taking over the United States (OK, you know there wouldn’t be one, but play along with me here), you can be sure there’d be prominent Jewish American characters fighting them to remind the audience that not all Jews are like that. Same thing if a group from a black country took over the United States; there’d be African American good guys trying to take them down. Why is it when it comes to Asian villains, no one thinks about balancing them with Asian American good guys?

MOVIE REVIEW: True Story Inspires Tale of Sex Trade; in a Twist, a U.S. Marshal Is the Bad Guy
New York Times

The movie, directed by Megan Griffiths, is loosely based on the true story of Chong Kim, who was born in South Korea and moved to the United States as a toddler. As a teenager in the mid-1990s, she became a captive of the domestic sex trade. She eventually survived her ordeal and has become a crusader against human trafficking.

In the film she is a Korean-American teenager named Hyun Jae (Jamie Chung), who works in her parents’ New Mexico gift shop. She is picked up in a bar by a handsome, friendly young firefighter who offers her a ride home. Along the way, he makes a stop and exits the vehicle. Moments later she is kidnapped and drugged and has her identification and possessions confiscated.

Reds hope Choo is center(field) piece of championship puzzle
SI.com

Last year the Reds were very good — they won 97 games (second most in the majors) and were up 2-games-to-0 in the Division Series before the Giants roared back to take the series — but Jocketty was still aggressive in retooling the NL Central champs over the winter, dealing away Drew Stubbs in a three-team trade that brought Shin-Soo Choo to Cincinnati. It was a bold move that left the Reds without a true centerfielder, but Jocketty says “it was a no-brainer because of the big hole Choo fits, which was leadoff. After we re-signed [Ryan] Ludwick, our priority was getting that leadoff guy, and now you look at the lineup, and it’s just set up so well. The only question is whether Choo will be able to play centerfield. We obviously feel he can.”

When the trade was completed, Indians GM Chris Antonetti quipped to Jocketty, “You’re going to have to give the keys to Choo — he’ll be the first guy in, every day.” Says Jocketty, “Chris was right. [Choo's] a proud guy, and he doesn’t want to be anything less than great at anything he does — he’s been working hard to make this transition [to center] work.”

Guide: How to Eat Galbi the Right Way
Seoulistic

There’s no PERFECT way to eat galbi, but there are certain things that nearly all Koreans do when eating Korean barbecue. Instead of just stuffing your face with beautiful slices of galbi, find out how you can eat galbi like the original gangsters!

Marja Vongerichten explores her roots through Korean cooking
FOX News

Going forward, Marja says she wants to continue exploring her Korean roots through food.

“There are lots of recipes I haven’t tackled yet and I’m still learning as I go, but I have a general understanding of Korean flavors and I know what things taste like.”

North Korea’s Kim supervises “drone attack” drill
Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a drone attack on a simulated South Korean target on Wednesday, Pyongyang’s KCNA news agency reported, and the armed forces shot down a target mimicking a cruise missile.

North Korea has stepped up its military exercises in response to what it regards as “hostile” joint drills by South Korea and the United States after Pyongyang was sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for a nuclear test in February.

China Moves on N.Korean Money Laundering
Chosun Ilbo

China is making tentative moves in the direction of curbing the illegal activities of North Korean banks, North Korean sources in Beijing said on Tuesday.

According to the sources, Chinese authorities put the brakes on illegal operations by the representative offices of Tanchon Commercial Bank, Korea Daesong Bank and Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. in Beijing and Dandong.

These representative offices are not licensed to engage in business operations such as currency exchange and remittances of money in China because they are not full branches. But in fact they have engaged in money laundering by making payments for trade transactions on North Korean traders’ behalf through borrowed-name bank accounts in China, or by receiving payments on traders’ behalf and asking their headquarters in North Korea to pay the traders.

CeFaan Kim, News12 reporter, mugged in Yonkers; 4 teens arrested
Newsday (subscription req’d)

A News12 reporter who was walking in Yonkers Wednesday morning was jumped by four teenagers in a robbery attempt that sent him to the hospital.

CeFaan Kim, 31, was attacked on Odell Avenue near the Greystone train station shortly before 9 a.m., authorities said. The teens hit him about 30 times before fleeing.

Kim, an ex-sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve, said he fought off the assailants,…

Steven Yeun On The Walking Dead’s Success With Women: ‘It Might Be Norman Reedus!’
Access Hollywood

“The Walking Dead” has been a major ratings success, bringing in millions to watch the survivors fend off zombies and rival groups on AMC each week. And despite the violence and scary situations, women have been tuning in, in droves.

“It might be Norman Reedus,” Steven Yeun theorized about the show’s success with ladies, when he stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday. “It’s might be Norman Reedus, Andrew Lincoln – probably those two.”

Steven, who plays the lovable Glenn (a former pizza delivery man-turned-zombie killer and apocalypse hunk, who has won the heart of Maggie Greene), also said the show resonates with people’s imaginations about dark times.

Cheezburger’s Ben Huh On Why Founders And Companies Should Be More Funny [TCTV]
TechCrunch

A lot of founders and companies will say that their big focus is on being taken seriously — especially at the earlier stages. But Ben Huh, the CEO of the super popular Cheezburger Network of websites, says that people should also focus on being taken not-so-seriously. Humor can help provide an important edge in the business world, he says, and it’s a tool that’s not used nearly often enough.

We sat down with Huh this past week at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas to hear a bit more about what it means to be funny at work.

Korean American Students Want You To Watch Their Music Video
AsianWeek

Korean American Vincent Ryu, a sophomore at Emory University in Atlanta, GA is hoping to have his music video “More Than The Other” receive as many YouTube views as possible by March 27, in order win his school’s Campus MovieFest Wild Card competition and is asking the public for help.

“We dealt with a genre that is commonly known as an area that Asians have difficulty in having success – hip hop. Both the composer, rapper, arranger, and singer are Korean Americans,” said Ryu who created the video with six friends. “I believe that this film is a great attempt for Asian Americans who don’t believe in boundaries. ”

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