Defiant North Korea says rocket launch to go ahead
Reuters

North Korea on Sunday rejected criticism of its planned long-range missile launch which threatens to upset its only major benefactor, China, and put relations with the United States back in the freezer just as they seemed to be starting to thaw.

Political analysts say the launch, which would violate U.N. resolutions on the heavily sanctioned state, is aimed at boosting the legitimacy of its young new ruler Kim Jong-un who inherited power after his father’s death in December.

North Korean Missile Could Be in Japanese Cross Hairs
New York Times

The last time this happened, when North Korea said it was launching a satellite using a long-range missile, Japan said it had the right to shoot the thing down.

Tokyo is again considering a similar warning, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, citing unidentified government officials.

North Korea announced last week that it would launch “a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite’’ to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founding president. The launch, using a North Korean rocket, is scheduled between April 12 and 16. (Mr. Kim was born April 15, 1912.)

Chatsworth man allegedly planned beating father to death with hammer
Los Angeles Daily News

A Chatsworth man suspected of using a hammer to kill his father planned the murder, police said Monday.

Jun Hyuk Chang, 45, called 911 around noon Sunday and told them he had killed his father. He waited for police to arrive and was calmly taken into custody at the scene. “It was premeditated,” said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Humerto Fajarado of the Devonshire station. “He went and bought the hammer the day before.”

Jun Hyuk Chang was booked into the Van Nuys jail at 9:38 p.m. Sunday on suspicion of murder, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s website. He was being held without bail.

Police said Jun Hyuk Chang called 911 around noon Sunday and told officers who went to his home in the 21300 block of Candice Place in Chatsworth that he had killed his father with a hammer. Fajardo said the 78-year-old victim, Sun Chil Chang, did not fight back and was not asleep at the time of the attack. The father, who was not disabled in any way, was found on the living room floor, Fajardo said. Sun Chil Chang was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrest father of brutalized baby in Colorado Springs
Denver Post

Colorado Springs police arrested a 22 year-old man this morning for allegedly abusing his two month-old son.

Police detectives arrested Daniel Kim, on a felony charge of child abuse causing serious bodily injury, police said.

Officers from the Sand Creek Division went to Memorial Hospital Center, where the baby was being cared for after receiving a call for service at 6:43 p.m. Saturday. The boy, who was treated for a skull fracture, possible chest trauma and bruising on his face and head, was admitted to the hospital for further testing and treatment, according to police.

SXSW 2012 Review: EDEN, An Earnest Plea Against Sex Slavery
Twitch Film

Jamie Chung gives the best performance of her career in Eden, an earnest, if one-note, drama about the evils of sex slavery that won the Narrative Feature Audience Award at SXSW.

Chung has had few opportunities to demonstrate her range as a dramatic actress in the years since she gained notice as a cast member of MTV’s The Real World. Not only has she faced the expected stiff competition from a legion of attractive young actresses, but she also has to deal with Hollywood’s reluctance, in general, to cast Asian-American actors for any character who is not, specifically, identified as an Asian or Asian-American.

‘Lost’s’ Yunjin Kim to Star in ABC’s Summer Series ‘Mistresses’
Hollywood Reporter

Yunjin Kim is returning to ABC.

The former Lost actress has been tapped to star in the network’s summer soap Mistresses, ABC announced late Friday.

The project, a remake of the 2008-10 British series of the same name, is described as a provocative thrilling drama that finds four women with scandalous romantic lives caught in storms of excitement and self-discovery, secrecy and betrayal, and at the mercy of the complex relationships they’ve created.

Kim will play Karen, one of the four women, alongside the previously cast Rochelle Aytes and Jes Macallan.

Don’t Give a Friggin’ Dime To “Peter Kim”
Village Voice

Who’s living in an apartment at 43-01 46th Street in Queens? If you gave money to alleged phony real estate broker “Peter Kim,” the answer is not you.

According to the NYPD, “Kim’s apparently been scamming people for the past few weeks, telling them he would rent them an apartment at the aforementioned address.

Only problem is, “Kim,” a.k.a. Michael Hong, has no authority to rent the apartment to anyone, and he’s currently wanted for grand larceny for allegedly ripping off several people who gave him money to rent the apartment.

Between February 22, and March 1, “Kim” ripped off at least 12 unsuspecting would-be renters who responded to an ad he placed on Craigslist. He’s still on the loose.

How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp
The Guardian (U.K.)

There was torture, starvation, betrayals and executions, but to Shin In Geun, Camp 14 – a prison for the political enemies of North Korea – was home. Then one day came the chance to flee…

Sonja Sohn: Changing Baltimore Long After ‘The Wire’
NPR

For five seasons, actress Sonja Sohn played Detective Shakima “Kima” Greggs on the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire, which chronicled life — and death — on Baltimore’s toughest streets.

When the series ended, Sohn stayed in East Baltimore, where she co-founded a nonprofit called ReWired for Change. The organization works with young people who have been incarcerated and who are out on parole, to try to help them straighten out their lives. Sohn uses scenes straight from The Wire to help make her point through education, media and advocacy.

Golfer David Lipsky secures dramatic maiden win in Cambodia
AFP via Yahoo Sports

American rookie David Lipsky produced a superb chip-in birdie to beat Filipino Elmer Salvador in the first play-off hole and win the inaugural $300,000 Handa Faldo Cambodian Classic on Saturday.

The 23-year-old, who won the Asian Tour’s Qualifying School in January, enjoyed his maiden professional victory in front of six-time Major champion Nick Faldo at the Angkor Golf Resort, a course Faldo designed.

Meet ‘North Korean’ rock star Rhee
Korea Times

If there was a punk rocker in North Korea, what would he be like? What would he sing about and where would he perform? Oh Do-ham and Park Jun-chul, members of rock band Pablov, turned these questions into an art show and invited 10 local artists to impersonate their versions of a fictitious rock star named Rhee Sung-wung at the Art Sonje Center in Jongno, central Seoul.

“North Korean Punk Rocker Rhee Sung-wung” is a combination of a concert and an art exhibition. It showcases a stage for the participating bands as installation pieces. On three nights — March 23, March 27 and April 13 — the musicians will perform.

In New Office Designs, Room to Roam and to Think
New York Times

MARTHA CHOE’S ideal working space is not her private office, nice though it is, but rather a long, narrow table in the vast atrium of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters here [in Seattle].

The table, situated in a 33-foot-high open mezzanine, enjoys great swaths of daylight through the atrium’s quarter-acre of glass, and has a stunning view of the Space Needle three blocks away. It’s not private, or quiet, but Ms. Choe has everything she needs stuffed into her laptop, and she finds the space inspirational.

She points out one further attraction: “That’s Nelson Mandela’s shirt on the wall behind the table.”

Ms. Choe, a former member of the City Council here, is the foundation’s chief administrative officer, and she had considerable input in the building’s design. One objective from the start was to give the 1,000 employees a variety of spaces to accommodate different kinds of work. “There’s a recognition that we work in different modes, and we’ve designed spaces to accommodate them,” she says. “I think one of the lessons is to understand your business, and understand what your people need to do their best work.”

Dia Frampton Covers Girls’ Generation’s “The Boys”
soompi

Singer Dia Frampton has performed an exclusive acoustic cover of Girls’ Generation’s “The Boys” for Soompiers! Dia, who is half-Korean, has been singing since the age of nine and started her first band with her older sister, Meg, at the age of 14.

East Meets West: Actress Kim Yun Jin and Tom Cruise
Soompi

Tom Cruise had a surprise meeting with actress Kim Yun Jin. A representative of the film, “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” stated on December 8 that, Kim Yun Jin met with Tom Cruise and Paula Pattonon December 2, for a premiere press conference.

The meeting was made possible due to a common acquaintance in a producer for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, “Bryan Burk.” Bryan Burk is known to be very close to Kim Yun Jin, he was a producer for “Lost.” (Kim Yun Jin played a significant role on that show, it should also be noted that J.J. Abrams, the executive producer/director for “Lost” is also a producer for Ghost Protocol.)

The Happy Houseplant | Indoor Gardening with Richard Chai
New York Times Magazine

What Richard Chai calls his orchid cemetery is a narrow, north-facing window sill in the kitchen area of his Financial District loft. There, five flowerless orchid plants in uniform terracotta pots are getting indirect sunlight and enough water to keep the soil moist most of the time, and that’s it. “Just ignore them,” says Chai, who is literally –– a word he uses quite frequently –– bringing the gentle plants back to life (maybe rehab is a better word for the facility). “I used to obsess about orchids. But if you ignore them, they’re so much happier.”

Chai, who is the designer for the men’s and women’s line Richard Chai Love, is and has been for years a skilled hobby gardener. In both of the New York City apartments he lived in previously, which had outdoor space, he’d grow flowers from seed. “Morning glories and such,” he says. “I didn’t really do the orchid thing.” But trading those places for his current, garden-less loft –– it has more square footage, lots of light, many windows –– “there had to be a trade-off.” And houseplants were the solution. “When I moved here, that’s when I started rescuing.”

Baja Fresh CEO David Kim was memorable at Jemison Awards
Birmingham Business Journal (Alabama)

Ecstatic. A little nervous. Thrilled.

Those words best describe my wave of emotions as Baja Fresh CEO David Kim spoke today at Birmingham Venture Club Birmingham Venture Club Latest from The Business Journals Top 40: Julian DailyWant a ‘monster’ idea? Take a long showerMonster.com founder to speak at Birmingham Venture Club Follow this company ’s 26th Annual Meeting and Jemison Award Ceremony at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel Sheraton Birmingham Hotel Latest from The Business Journals Photos from our 2011 Best Places to Work AwardsBBJ ranks Birmingham’s Best Places to WorkTop of the List: Hotel Meeting Spaces Follow this company .

As a fan of CBS’ hit series Undercover Boss, I was first introduced to Kim a few months back as he wore a fake beard to disguise himself so he could get an inside look at what was going on at his company.

Check out our feature story on David Kim from the June 2011 issue of KoreAm.

North Korea swing toward China not good news [OPINION]
Los Angeles Times

The legacy of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s decision in the early 1990s to pursue a strategic partnership with the United States has run its course. In its place, the focus of Pyongyang’s policies has decisively shifted to Beijing. However wary the North Koreans may be of their neighbor, the fact is that from Pyongyang’s viewpoint, the Chinese have delivered and the United States did not.

‘Urban Umbrella’ Graces New York With New Scaffolding (PHOTOS)
Huffington Post

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first model of “Urban Umbrella,” a beautiful new design for the city’s scaffolding structures, in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday.

The design was the winner of the urbanSHED competition which sought to revamp the city’s current scaffolding designed more than 60 years ago. Project Engineer Sarrah Khan, Architect Andres Cortes, and Designer Young Hwan Choi who all helped bring the structure to life were also present for Wednesday’s unveiling.

U.S. ambassador hails growing partnership with S. Korea in development
Yonhap News

U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Sung Kim has praised the growing cooperation between America and South Korea on development issues, saying he believes their joint efforts will expand the scope of their alliance.

“U.S.-ROK cooperation on development is just beginning,” he wrote in his online blog Tuesday, referring to South Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Republic of Korea.

“It was only a few months ago that Secretary Clinton signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on international aid cooperation, and I know that the implementation process has already begun. This is a great example of how we are expanding our partnership beyond the Korean Peninsula,” said Kim, who is the first Korean-American U.S. ambassador to Seoul.

The Walking Dead: Glenn & Maggie Fall for Each Other
8Asians

In the past few episodes, we’ve seen Maggie really starting to fall for Glenn. In Episode 6 (Season 2), after Glenn saves Maggie from a “walker” (zombie) after another trip to the pharmacy where they first “did it,” Maggie expresses her concerns and feelings for him. Maggie explains that Glenn is the under-appreciated risk taker and unrecognized contributor of their group of survivalists. This statement could be mirrored I think how a lot of Asian American men and women feel in the workplace.

10 creative date spots in Seoul
CNNGo

Seoul is a city for couples. Everyone you turn, there seem to be young pairs with hands locked, oblivious to the bustle around them. And, we’ve all seen the matching couples’ shirts.

Needless to say, it can be hard to stand out. When you finally manage to get that number, make the date count and go somewhere unique. If you’re already dating, it could never hurt to try somewhere new.

1. Catch a baseball game at Jamsil Stadium

Can’t find a cab at Gangnam Station? Don’t worry, the city will catch one for you
CNNGo

There’s something about the Gangnam Station area at night that turns Seoul cab drivers into obnoxious, discriminating money-mongerers. While hundreds of bar-hoppers stand shivering in the streets, the normally easy-to-get taxis roll down their windows, then breeze right by as if the driver can’t hear the desperate yelling.

Luckily for Seoulites and bewildered travelers, Seoul has decided to take action this month: starting yesterday, nine city workers have been set the sole task of flagging down cabs at Gangnam Station, reported MBN. The idea is that the “Taxi-hailing Patrol” will call for nearby cabs, while the government will subsidize the cab fares.

Anthony Kim looking for a turnaround
Naples News (Florida)

Anthony Kim doesn’t need to look too far to see where he wants to be next year. The 26-year-old Kim struggled on tour this year but is playing with Webb Simpson, who finished second on the money list, in this week’s Franklin Templeton Shootout.

“I’m ready to start a new season, ready to play some better golf,” Kim said. “It’s happened before. I’ve had bad years and come back with good years.”

The King of Pigs: Film Review
Hollywood Reporter

A shocking tale of teen violence that’s as allegorical in its animalistic imagery as Lord of the Flies and Shohei Imamura’s works, The King of Pigs announces the arrival of a raw, dark, adult-oriented genre of independent animation in Korea that has hitherto only made as shorts. So far, Japanese manga and film arguably cornered the market on school bullying, but Yeun Sang-ho’s screenplay-direction stands out by situating it within the particulars of Korean society. Ugly, pitiless, and mightily provocative in its representation of human debasement, his satire on class inequality burns like acid.

Korean Footballers Playing on European Pitches
Chosun Ilbo

More promising Korean footballers are heading for Europe to sharpen their skills, test themselves against the world’s best players and make their names at the pinnacle of world soccer. Park Ji-sung of Manchester United was the first to successfully settle in and seal his reputation among England’s t…

Rebecca Black, planking, My Little Pony: Best memes of 2011
Los Angeles Times

Know Your Meme has come up with its top memes for 2011, and the list includes Rebecca Black — the lauded and lambasted YouTube star for her video “Friday” — as well as Scumbag Steve, My Little Pony, X all the Y and more.

It’s enough to make you nostalgic for “All your base are belong to us.”

“Rewind back to early 2000 or the late 1990s,” said Know Your Meme editor Brad Kim. “This is around when the word ‘meme’ slowly and gradually became associated with … interesting Internet stuff.”

Memes, for the uninitiated, are “any online media that spreads on a massive scale across the Internet,” Kim said. Many, he said, come from TV, popular movies, video games — mainstream culture. “That is the single biggest source of Internet memes.” See Know Your Meme’s top 10 list below. (Note: The language in some images in the meme video above is not always family friendly.)

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