President Trump honored two storied military veterans during his State of the Union address, including 100-year-old veteran Royce Williams of Escondido, who survived what is believed to be the longest dog fight in military history.
The former Navy fighter pilot, who was seated next to First Lady Melania Trump in the Capitol during the president’s address Tuesday night, flew more than 220 missions in World War II as well as the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Trump called Williams “a living legend” before describing his war-time heroics.
“In the skies over Korea in 1952, Royce was in the dogfight of a lifetime, a legendary dogfight,” Trump said. “Flying through blizzard conditions, his squadron was ambushed by seven Soviet fighter planes.”
Despite being outnumbered, Williams took down four of the jet fighters as his plane was hit more than 260 times and he was severely injured.
The incident was kept confidential because the Soviet Union was not officially a combatant in the Korean conflict, and American officials feared that if the air battle became known, it could compel the Soviets to formally enter the war.
Williams didn’t speak about the details of the encounter — even with family members — until records about the dogfight were declassified in 2002.
“His story was secret for over 50 years. He didn’t even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew,” Trump said. “Tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
Trump then announced that Williams would receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. Melania Trump placed the blue-ribboned medal around his neck.
Williams was the guest of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), a fellow veteran.
“My friend, constituent, and lifelong hero Royce Williams is a Top Gun pilot like no other, an American hero for all time, and now, a recipient of the highest honor in the land,” Issa said in a statement. “It was many years in the making, but it is my honor to have fought all these years for Royce to gain a recognition that he has not sought, but so richly deserves.”
Trump also announced that the Medal of Honor would be awarded to Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, an Army helicopter pilot who was gravely wounded in the 2026 raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“While preparing to land, enemy machine guns fired from every angle, and Eric was hit very badly in the leg and hip. One bullet after another, he observed four agonizing shots shredding his leg into numerous pieces,” Trump said.
Despite the gunshot wounds to his legs, with blood flowing through the helicopter he was piloting, “Eric maneuvered his helicopter with all of those lives and souls to face the enemy and let his gunners eliminate the threat, turn the helicopter around so the gunners could take care of business, saving the lives of his fellow warriors from what could have been a catastrophic crash deep in enemy territory,” Trump said.
Trump added, “Chief Warrant Officer Slover is still recovering from his serious wounds, but I’m thrilled to say that he is here tonight with his wife, Amy. Eric and Amy, come on in.”
Slover, with the aid of a walker, entered the gallery. “In recognition of Eric’s actions above and beyond the call of duty,” Trump said, “I would now like to ask Gen. Jonathan Braga to present Chief Warrant Officer Slover with our nation’s highest military award.”
Trump added that he too hopes to one day receive a Medal of Honor.
“But I was informed I’m not allowed to give it to myself,” Trump said. “But if they ever open up that law, I will be there with you someday.”
The Taiwan Creative Content Fest forum, Stories in Motion: From IP to Investment to Global, drilled deep into how Asian stories move through the modern value chain – from original IP to financing to worldwide circulation.
Mr. Romance CEO Sean Saeyoon Shim and Yungsun Soh, senior VP and MD of A+E Global Media, Korea, one of the most influential women in international entertainment, joined the discussion moderated by DaMou Entertainment CEO Jayde Lin.
The conversation opened with Korea’s webtoon ecosystem, a prolific source of globally adaptable IP. “Webtoons come pre-tested by audiences. They give producers a solid foundation to gauge demand,” Shim said. “But international viability is just as crucial. For Korea or Taiwan, the key is pursuing themes that feel original and sincere – stories with emotional reach beyond borders.”
Soh observed that despite surging global attention for Asian content, the path from IP to screen has become more complex. “Streaming competition and rising production costs introduce new pressures. That’s why aligning with partners who share the same creative and strategic vision is more important than ever,” she noted.
Packaging remains a decisive factor in investment. Shim shared that he relies on informal audience feedback before aligning with financiers, but emphasized the second phase of the journey: “Once a show is on a platform, the big question is how it breaks through the noise.”
Soh also agreed: “Everyone wants to stand out on global streamers. But Asian stories – from Korea and increasingly across the region – are resonating worldwide. Strong storytelling paired with strong marketing will find its audience.”
Shim cited “Moving,” the Disney+ hit that took seven years to shape its debut season, as an example of long-arc IP development paying off.
Looking ahead to the global market, he sees two critical pathways for markets with shrinking domestic demand: international co-production to share risk and expand reach, and shifting development from B2B to B2C, including blockchain mechanisms that allow audiences to participate as micro-investors or even influence casting. “It creates a new communication channel between producers and viewers,” he noted.
Shim, CEO of Mr. Romance, who signed a memorandum of understanding with TAICCA in March, admitted that working within government-backed frameworks comes with both security and strings attached. Even so, both speakers were upbeat that the next wave of pan-Asian partnerships – Taiwan firmly in the mix – will push regional IP further onto the global stage.
Japanese artist Izumi Kato’s humanoid hybrid creatures exist in a fluid space between worlds, hovering somewhere between ancient totems, unborn spirits and extraterrestrial beings. They emerge as sudden, epiphanic visions that reveal unprecedented truths about our evolutionary path while profanely suggesting new possibilities for more symbiotic and sustainable survival on this planet.
In just a few years, Kato has risen to international and institutional prominence, building a strong market presence through powerhouse gallery Perrotin and steadily climbing auction results. He has established a global reputation with a distinctive symbolic language and a sense of mystery and magic that unites Japan’s ancient folklore and Shinto spirituality with underground manga aesthetics and a contemporary, saturated visual sensibility that feels attuned to the world ahead.
Izumi Kato. Photo: Claire Dorn, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
Both in Kato’s soon-to-close show at Perrotin and in his works for Aichi, his biomorphic characters take on watery, fluid forms. Existing somewhere between human and aquatic beings, suspended in a plasmatic or amniotic dimension, they evoke the evolutionary arc from aquatic to amphibious to human life while hinting at a possible reactivation—or even inversion—of this cycle as a path toward ecological survival.
As Kato acknowledges, his painting practice continues to evolve. “Most recently, I’ve begun incorporating living sea creatures into my work,” he explains, noting that it’s been 30 years since he last painted while directly observing his subject. “Now, I paint these forms as I need them, as a way to express what painting means to me at this moment.”
His figures feel both ancient and futuristic, alien and human. Kato’s vivid primary palette heightens this tension. “Colors are sensory for me, and I use them intuitively,” he says. “I don’t begin with a fixed color plan; instead, I decide on each color one by one as I paint.” Balancing primal immediacy with an aesthetic partly influenced by the digital landscape is likely what makes his work so resonant for contemporary viewers.
While his figures do not directly reference evolutionary history, Kato sees the planet itself as a living entity in continuous transformation. “Earth is home to countless life forms, though definitions of life can vary from person to person,” he says. “I see the planet itself as a living entity. It’s something mysterious and deeply fascinating to me, and I find myself thinking about it often.”
An installation view of Kato’s solo exhibition at Perrotin Seoul. Photo: Hwang Jung Wook, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
Throughout his evolving practice, Kato has constructed an expansive symbolic narrative that envisions hybridization between species as an alternative path for humanity. Moving fluidly across mediums and often incorporating natural materials like wood and stone, his oeuvre feels like a continuous, urgent exercise in worldbuilding—a form of mythopoiesis aimed at imagining new destinies for human society. His work draws unconsciously from Japanese folklore and Shinto beliefs, though he clarifies that he does not intentionally reference any specific motif. Those connections surface organically, shaped by his personal and familial background.
Kato acknowledges that autobiography inevitably seeps into his art. “It’s hard to answer that clearly, but everything I experience in life affects me in some way, and those influences likely appear in my work, often unconsciously,” he explains. Painting, for him, serves as both a pathway and a tool to absorb, process and translate these personal traces.
“I’m definitely influenced by the local culture and upbringing I experienced in Shimane, where I grew up,” he says, recalling how parents would warn children about an imaginary sea creature—a snake with a woman’s face—that appeared at night to scare them away from the water. Kato’s paintings capture the same tension animating most fairy tales: the balance between innocence and menace. His figures appear childlike yet unsettling, gentle yet otherworldly—existing between birth and death, body and spirit, human and nonhuman. These myths, he reflects, ultimately serve as a form of survival wisdom. “I only realized recently how much the environment I grew up in has influenced my work.”
It is by inhabiting a symbolic third realm of myth and fairy tales—one that bridges the physical and the psychological—that Kato’s images achieve their universality, subtly conveying timeless messages about the nature of human existence. However, he says that he doesn’t view the recurring motifs in his work as characters, since they lack personalities and are not part of any linear narrative or deliberate storytelling. “I use human-like figures to strengthen the composition of the painting and to spark the viewer’s imagination,” he explains. At the same time, he acknowledges that these otherworldly, symbolic visions of alternative forms of life likely belong to another realm and time—whether future or past—where species coexist in harmonious hybridization before emerging in painterly or sculptural form. Kato admits it is difficult to articulate in words, but his paintings inhabit a memorial, imaginative and spiritual realm that precedes and transcends language, defying conventional categories. They speak both to and beyond the human, offering prophecies of alternative possibilities for cosmic life within and beyond this planet and time.
Kato’s figures often appear suspended in a distinctly plasmatic dimension yet animated by an inner radiance—a kind of energetic aura. “I don’t really know where it comes from, but I believe art itself is energy,” Kato says, responding cryptically when asked what this energy represents. “I’m glad one can sense that energetic aura in my work.”
In a time defined by destruction and chaos, the mythopoiesis underlying Kato’s epiphanic, profane and totemic works offers contemporary viewers a regenerative narrative reminiscent of ancient myth, reminding us that life, evolution, decay and rebirth are part of a continuous cycle. Mapping the liminal space between collapse and renewal, his hybrid creatures inhabit that threshold, carrying the deep knowledge that decay is never the end but a necessary passage. Suggesting a survival code rooted in eternal truths and expressed through symbolic language, Kato’s works—mythological in essence and, in the spirit of Joseph Campbell’s “metaphors for the mystery of being”—bridge our waking consciousness with the vast, enduring mysteries of the universe.
EXCLUSIVE: Starring Korean-American chef Edward Lee as well as veteran actor Ryu Soo-young, Ed And Ryu: Mad About Seafood is a culinary travel documentary co-produced by BBC Studios Asia and Studio JanChi — with a K-pop star also set to make an appearance in the show.
London-based executive producer Jeong Sunyoung sits down with Deadline to share more about collaborating with Lee and Ryu to bring viewers on a gastronomic voyage around South Korea‘s coastline. Jeong talks about bridging different unscripted storytelling styles between the U.K. and Korea, casting Lee and Ryu in the show, and how co-producing with overseas partners like BBC Studios can potentially help to solve a major pain point in Korea’s unscripted television business.
Previously under the working title “12 Seas,”Ed And Ryu: Mad About Seafood is a four-part English-language series exploring South Korea’s rich seafood traditions and maritime heritage. Following Lee and Ryu as they harvest wild seaweed using ancient techniques and catch anchovies with traditional bamboo traps, the show is also about contemporary Korea: diving into the science behind K-beauty trends like salmon sperm injections and reimagining the local cuisine with seasonal seafood.
The show will premiere next year on BBC Earth and BBC Player across Asia.
Brewing a culinary adventure
Jeong is no stranger to exec producing a series about Korean food, after shepherding BBC Studios’ first original production in Asia, Deep Dive Korea: Song Ji-hyo’s Haenyeo Adventure, from concept development to its premiere in May this year. Starring Song Ji-hyo, the series followed the female free divers called “haenyeo” on Korea’s Jeju Island, who use their skills to harvest a variety of seafood.
The concept for Mad About Seafood first emerged from a pitch competition co-hosted by the Korean Creative Content Agency and BBC Studios. Studio Janchi, which focuses on food-related programs, beat more than 20 other pitches to win the competition.
The initial idea revolved around showcasing Korean seafood based on the seasonality of every month — with 12 episodes to reflect 12 months — but the final version pivoted to four episodes focusing on spring, summer, fall and winter.
The shoot for the series first began in March, with the final shoot set to take place in end-October.
Casting Edward Lee and Ryu Soo-young
A familiar face on cooking competition programs like Iron Chef America, MasterChef, and Culinary Class Wars, Lee was quickly cast in Mad About Seafood.
Jeong says that Mad About Seafood is far from just a whistle-stop tour of Korea’s culinary highlights, but instead, an in-depth program about culture and heritage that also provided space for Lee to share more about his identity as a Korean-American.
Ryu Soo-young (L) and Edward Lee (R) on the island of Jeju.
“I think what really made the audience root for him [in other shows] was his effort, in his early 50s, to reconnect with the heritage he felt he had slightly neglected because of many reasons,” says Jeong. “There was a scene where we asked him this question, and he said that he felt slightly guilty about not using his Korean name, but in the United States, as an Asian immigrant, you have pressure to assimilate with America as much as possible. Now he feels very free to enjoy his Korean heritage, so we tried to capture this moment in a very honest way.”
Ryu has starred in food shows like Stars’ Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant, Mr. Eo’s Food World Tour and K Food Show, besides acting in films and dramas like Steel Rain 2, Bloodhounds and Endless Love.
“Ryu Soo-young is a great, and although they hadn’t met before we put them together, they know of each other,” adds Jeong. “Koreans jokingly say that every household needs a Ryu Soo-young because he’s too perfect. He’s handsome. He’s very kind. He cooks.”
Differences in storytelling stylesbetween Korea and the UK
Reflecting on some of the differences between unscripted programs in Korea and the UK, Jeong said that Korean programs tend to have quite a lot of dialogue. “For international audiences, without having any language understanding or cultural background, it’s very difficult for them to engage with these kinds of programs, which actually works really well for Korean audiences.”
Besides collaborating with Studio JanChi and local crew in Korea, Jeong worked with BBC Studios’ global team, across the London, New York and Singapore offices to bring Mad About Seafood to life.
She says that with the BBC taking care of the international distribution, one of the biggest pain points in the Korean unscripted business is resolved for this show.
“We help to sell and distribute this program internationally. For Korean content, when it comes to drama, it’s very successful, but when it comes to unscripted — although domestic reality shows and some game shows have been quite successful in terms of launching a format — for factual entertainment or documentary, they are always looking for ways to get more exposure and international distribution. For BBC Studios, which is a world-leading distributor, this is very helpful,” says Jeong.
For Jeong, Mad About Seafood has also been the culmination of different threads in her life which have armed her with strong intercultural sensibilities and a sharp sense of how to produce for the international entertainment ecoysystem: her six-year career as a multimedia journalist alongside her decade-long journey as a TV producer; her upbringing and early professional life in Korea paired with her current career and home base in the UK.
“Because I’m Korean, I think it is a bit easier for me to push for a more challenging angle, because I’m an insider with outside knowledge, when it comes to storytelling for Korean audiences or with Korean production companies. I like to challenge them, because I really want to make sure that we are pushing the envelope when it comes to creativity.”
Eating a meal with Korea’s ‘haenyeos’
For example, while researching material before making Deep Dive Korea, Jeong felt that the topic of the haenyeo female free divers had been glorified in the media without sufficient context of the suffering and hardship historically associated with the community. “I asked, ‘why do they still not carry air tanks when this technology is available for them?’ I really wanted to push the show to go deeper into the subject matter.
“We were able to tell the story of old haenyeos who grww to love their jobs, but it was actually started by economic necessity. There are people, especially from the younger generation, who love being haenyeos because they love the idea of working in the ocean and there’s much more awareness around ecology and the environment these days. But for older people, it was probably a luxury for them,” adds Jeong.
In another example, Jeong shares that at the start, her Korean production partners were nervous about telling the story of hagfish in the show. A delicacy in Korea (and especially popular in Busan), the animal is linked to a dark period in the country’s history.
At a fish market.
“I wanted to talk about the history behind this food, because during the Japanese occupation, Japan built a factory around manufacturing goods from hagfish like hagfish bags and all. But Koreans at the time were very poor, so they found a way to eat hagfish meat out of the hagfish factory. I found this kind of story very interesting, because it’s very layered and it’s a great story to tell about how Korea was and how Korea is now,” says Jeong.
“But there was a little bit of hesitation from my production partner, because understandably, they want to show the best parts of Korea and don’t necessarily want to go back to these difficult times for Koreans, but I told them that people will resonate much more with the story because it’s a universal topic, in terms of going through hardships or difficult times. Now that we’ve actually overcomes this, this is great way of talking about Korea’s transformation through the lens of food. So I told my production partner my intentions behind what seemed to be slightly difficult story for them, and I think they understood and were, in the end, quite happy that we actually covered that subject.”
Memorable scenesand a changing Korea
Jeong says that another particularly memorable location in the upcoming series was a mud flat that they shot in the spring this year. Mudflats and tidal flats in Korea are home to a wide variety of clams, crabs, octopuses, and snails, which can be harvested.
“I actually didn’t know how important mud flats were when it comes to ecology,” says Jeong. “If you look at a mudflat, it looks lifeless and gray, but there’s actually so much life going on. It was a perfect spring story. Despite the depressing visuals on the surface, if you go deeper, there are so many clams and life there. Apparently, Korea has one of the largest mud flats in the world.”
With production wrapping up at the end of this month for the series, Jeong shares one of her biggest takeaways from traveling around the country.
“We really want to make sure that this is a story about dynamic, contemporary Korea. For instance, when we filmed the haenyeo in Jeju, I noticed when we filmed in rural areas in Korea, there are quite a number of foreign workers. The Korean demographic is changing.
“In the haenyeo sequence, we have a Filipino haenyeo who is loved by her colleagues. Her nickname is ‘Octopus Granny’ because she’s really good at catching octopus and that was very interesting for me, because haenyeo is a community that is known for being quite closed, but the fact that they embraced a foreign woman, who settled in Jeju Island because she married a local man, was an exciting way to show how Korea is changing.”
Kiaf SEOUL and Frieze Seoul each opened at the COEX Center with a VIP preview on September 3. Courtesy of Kiaf SEOUL
For those who’ve attended Seoul’s art week since Frieze arrived in 2021, the contrast this year was unmistakable. The chaotic entrance lines at Kiaf SEOUL and the overcrowded aisles of last year’s Frieze are gone. Attendance feels lighter, and the booths more subdued, though major brands like Adidas, BMW, Ruinart and American Express still held prime positions at the entrance—a clear indication that the fair’s popularity is now firmly rooted in Korean society four years after its debut.
At the opening of Frieze Seoul on Wednesday, September 3, the mood was distinctly more muted and contained—a reflection of the art world adjusting to a new chapter in South Korea’s post-boom market. Slightly more lively in the afternoon was the historical Korean fair Kiaf, where collectors remain loyal to longstanding traditions and their local dealers.
This year marks the 4th edition of Frieze Seoul. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio
Blue-chip gallerists like Larry Gagosian and Emmanuel Perrotin skipped the trip this year, leaving their booths staffed solely by regional teams during the preview—a stark contrast to previous editions, when they flew in with much of their global staff. When gallery owners or lead partners from spaces focused on Korean artists, such as Gladstone and Mennour, did attend, it signaled that international galleries have already recognized the need to tailor their offerings to a local audience attuned to the market’s slower collecting pace and shifting attitude.
While Korean collectors remain engaged with the international art circuit, this has undeniably been a turbulent year for the country. With President Yoon Suk-yeol ousted after attempting to declare martial law and an economy still reeling from the effects of U.S. tariffs, Korean collectors are understandably more cautious in their buying.
This year, Frieze Seoul hosted over 120 galleries. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio.
Private buyers and institutions remain active, but spending habits have shifted, as Observer gathered from early press preview conversations. The once-rampant appetite for ultra-contemporary works has given way to a more measured approach, focusing on institutional-grade pieces and blue-chip artists. Speaking with resigned pragmatism, dealers noted that this trend extends beyond South Korea, echoing across Asia and the global market.
So what’s the new mantra for galleries? Cultivate your own relationships in the place you show. Those who have spent years building ties in South Korea can still make it work, as can local players. But for newcomers, entering the market now may feel like they’re arriving just as the music stopped.
That was not the case for the dynamic Los Angeles gallery Make Room, which marked its first appearance in Frieze Seoul’s main section with a shared booth alongside Apalazzo and a celebrity-filled dinner party steeped in a witchy atmosphere. Between drinks and bites of Korean fried chicken, K-pop and K-drama stars made appearances that set social media alight—including SUHO from EXO, actor Lomon Park, Tony Hong and members of the girl group Lovelyz.
Make Room hosted a K-pop and K-drama star-filled dinner on Tuesday night. Courtesy Make Room | Photo: Studio Monday Naked
Park Seo-Bo, a foundational figure in postwar Korean abstraction and the father of Dansaekhwa, was one of the names resonating most strongly at Kiaf and Frieze this year, following his recent passing. At Frieze, LG OLED honored his legacy in collaboration with the artist’s foundation, dedicating an entire booth to rarely seen later Écriture paintings from the estate, paired with ultra high-resolution video works that captured the textures in striking detail. The sharp contrast between the digital reinterpretations on screen and the tactile surfaces of the paintings underscored how, in his later years, Seo-Bo was already reflecting on the role of painting in a world saturated by screens and shaped by emerging digital realms that influence perception and aesthetics. As he once described it, standing on a “cliff edge” in the early 2000s, Seo-Bo confronted the question of how painting could evolve as the boundaries between different worlds began to blur.
Dynamic lower tiers and Focus Asia offer opportunities for discovery
Noteworthy results at both Frieze and Kiaf weren’t limited to the highest price points. Lindseed from Shanghai quickly sold out works by Chinese-born, Paris-based visionary Fu Liang at the Focus Asia sector, with prices ranging from $6,500 to $34,000. Similarly, Hong Kong-based gallery Kiang Malingue, which recently opened a space in New York, nearly sold out its solo booth of work by Taiwanese talent Tseng Chien Ying, priced between $15,000 and $25,000—a current sweet spot for collectors.
Returning to Seoul from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s leading contemporary gallery, Galerie Quynh, took a bold step with a solo presentation in the main section, showcasing the layered work of Lien Truong, a Vietnamese-born artist based in North Carolina. Her intricate canvases—exploring the intersection of body, identity and environment through the lens of diasporic trauma and societal pressure—drew early interest from collectors.
Seoul gallery Cylinder made a striking debut in the main section, securing multiple sales, including a work by Jennifer Carvalho ($9,000), three works by Sunwon Chan ($2,500-4,800), two works by Eunsil Lee ($12,000 and $5,000) and two works by Jongwhan Lee ($2,200 and $5,000). Next for the fast-growing gallery is its debut at Frieze London with a solo booth by Rim Park.
Equally successful, the young and dynamic Seoul gallery G Gallery sold six works by Choi Yoonhee on the first day ($2,400-19,000), a work by Moon Isaac for $12,000 and a piece by Cindy Ji Hye Kim for $10,000.
Another first-time exhibitor in Focus Asia was Shanghai- and Beijing-based Hive Contemporary, which showcased emerging names including Yuan Fang, Xia Yu, Zhang Mingxuang and Tan Yongqing, drawing a strong response: by evening, the gallery had sold 18 paintings and one sculpture priced between $20,000 and $100,000.
Timoteus Anggawan Kusno was presented by the Kohesi Initiative at Frieze Seoul Focus Asia. Photo: Elisa Carollo
Despite this year’s reduced footprint—and tucked into a narrow corridor wedged between the main booths—the Focus Asia section at Frieze offered some of the most compelling opportunities for regional discoveries inside the COEX.
Jakarta-based gallery Kohesi Initiatives presented Indonesian filmmaker and multimedia artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, whose work revisits censored narratives from 1960s films to explore liminality and historical erasure, examining the blurred lines between fact and fiction. Rooted in post-colonial and post-dictatorship Indonesia, Kusno’s practice reflects the country’s ongoing unrest and protests, shaped by the long-term consequences of the very issues his work confronts.
Parcel (F3) at Frieze Seoul, Focus Asia. Courtesy of Frieze Seoul
Tokyo-based PARCEL is presenting the multilayered practice of Side Core, a Japanese collective that critiques forced urbanization and restless public development through thoughtful multimedia guerrilla interventions. The works on view confront contradictions in public funding for the Tokyo Olympics and the broader paradoxes of Japan’s rapid urban expansion. Among them, the Rode Work series—launched in 2017 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture—juxtaposes post-disaster reconstruction landscapes with the repetitive motions of skateboarding, highlighting the enduring bond between land and people. In the film, flashing lights and hazard signs guide drivers to a skate park built on a damaged industrial site, where skaters in high-visibility jerseys grind a half-pipe—subtly revealing how grassroots creativity can emerge from destruction and corruption.
Another standout in the section is PTT Space, presenting the sharp satire of Taiwanese American artist Christine Tien Wang, who explores millennial diaspora anxieties and the recent volatility of the bitcoin bubble through one of the most diffuse yet persistent forms of contemporary ephemera: memes. Her Tiger series addresses diasporic anxiety and societal mobility within Asian communities, while her Bitcoin series critiques the NFT apocalypse and the fleeting nature of digital culture, transforming the disposable aesthetics of memes into what the artist calls “historical paintings,” reflective of our time and its contradictions. Working at the intersection of institutional critique, politics and popular culture, Tien Wang is gaining international recognition, with acquisitions by LACMA and exhibitions at both Night Gallery and Naxos Draxler.
Christine Tien Wang’s “BDSM (Bitcoin Daddies Seek Memes),” presented by PTT Space in Frieze Seoul’s Focus Asia section. Courtesy of PTT Space
Korean and international galleries stake a claim on Kiaf’s first-day buzz
When comparing Kiaf with Frieze, several Korean dealers appeared to place even more emphasis on their presentations, spotlighting the top names in their rosters. On the lower level of the historic Korean fair, Kukje Gallery reported a complete sell-out of Ugo Rondinone’s work (the artist also has a show at Gladstone this week), along with an iconic green Kapoor piece (£550,000-660,000) and a later work by Park Seo-Bo ($250,000-300,000). Known as a leading gallery for Korean art, Johyun Gallery made a strong showing with artists like Lee Bae and Park Seo-Bo, reporting early sales directly from the floor. Blue-chip names also anchored Gana Art’s presentation, which included works by Alex Katz, Chiharu Shiota and Yayoi Kusama.
Seoul-based EM Gallery drew attention with Moonassi, the Korean artist recognized for his black-and-white existential compositions. The gallery sold out pieces priced between $20,000 and $32,000—Moonassi’s works have remained in high demand since his last presentation, often with waiting lists.
The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a painting by Palma Il Vecchio, dated 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie alongside drawings and sculptures by Marino Marini and works on paper and lithographs by Picasso. The historic canvas drew attention on the floor with a price tag of €750,000, standing out amid the fair’s modern and contemporary offerings. Long part of the gallery owner’s personal collection, the masterpiece was originally acquired from a nobleman in Hungary, and now everyone’s wondering whether it will find a new home this edition.
The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a Palma Il Vecchio painting from 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie. Courtesy of Die Galerie
In general, however, a pop aesthetic and lower price points seemed to be the winning formula for maintaining Kiaf’s floral energy on the first day. Gallery Delaive reported early sales of several works by Ayako Rokkaku, priced between €50,000 and €200,000.
Among the standout presentations of new names, Space Willing N Dealing showcased quietly contemplative scenes of human interaction and exchange, all priced between $2,500 and $3,500. Busan-based gallery Nara Cho Busan presented Anomalisa, an exploration of love and entanglement through thread, with works priced at $7,800-12,000. Intimacy and suspended atmospheres—rendered through soft, delicate paint—also defined the work of Japanese painter Shimpei Yoshida, shown by Shibuya-based Hide Gallery. Thanks to very accessible pricing under $1,500, several pieces had sold or were on hold by day’s end.
KORNFELD, participating in its fifth Kiaf, also reported a strong start. Works by Korean artists Wonhae Hwang and Seong Joon Hong found new collectors on day one, totaling €10,000, while a major piece by Etsu Egami sold within the first hour to a new Korean collector for €22,000. “After participating at Kiaf for more than five years, we are very pleased with the successful start of this edition and the positive response from collectors and institutions,” gallery owner Alfred Kornfeld told Observer.
Returning to Kiaf with a strong grasp of the rhythm and habits of Korean collectors, the Milan-based Cassina Project had a particularly promising first day—even with just one confirmed sale. “We had good conversations. From our experience in past years, the following days are usually more intense—clients who show interest often return, and the final days are when deals close,” Irene Cassina told Observer.
Kiaf SEOUL runs through September 7. Courtesy Kiaf SEOUL
Among the additional sales reported by dealers at Kiaf by the start of the second day, Gallery Palzo sold Byeong Hyeon Jeong’s Ambiguous Inclination 25008 for $5,250 and two works by Lee Daecheon—Berg, Wasser (산, 수) for $3,000 and Gardener for $450—along with two paintings by Haru. K, each sold for $675. Galerie PICI placed two works by Dukhee Kim: Gold Desire-Bag for $4,000 and Keep Going (pump) for $2,000. SAN Gallery sold Jenkun Yeh’s Back and Forth I for $2,085 and Huihsuan Hsu’s Chasing a Lush Cave for $1,875. SH Art reported a complete sell-out of works by Backside—a street artist from Fukuoka, Japan, whose true identity remains anonymous—including VIVA, PINEAPPLE, SMILE, VINYL and QUIET, each priced at $17,250.
Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL continue through Sunday, September 7, at the COEX Center.
This group show could not find a better place or moment, given how South Korea’s cosmetics industry has peaked—driven by the global export success of Korean brands—and how cosmetic interventions have become so normalized they border on obsession within the country’s society. Featuring a lineup of established and emerging names including So Young Park, Pamela Rosenkranz, Diane Severin Nguyen, Haena Yoo, Haneyl Choi, Sylvie Fleury, Simon Fujiwara, Sanja Ivekovic, Anna Munk and Ju Young Kim, the exhibition at P21 Gallery examines how artists engage with the material world of cosmetics consumer culture. Exploring the intersections of beauty and capitalism, the show highlights the emotional intensity of cosmetics and makeup, revealing how the body, skin and psyche are metaphorically reconstructed amid the expansion of the consumer goods market—a market fueled by spontaneous, conscious responses to users’ trauma. Rather than offering a simple expression of beauty, the exhibition proposes a psychological, sensory and materialist aesthetic composed of powders, lotions, sprays and plastic packaging, raising urgent questions about our relationship with our own bodies.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade next week, the two countries said Thursday, in an event that would bring him together with a group of world leaders for the first time since taking office in late 2011.Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesday’s parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s resistance against Japan’s wartime aggressions, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.“We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. “Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Kim will visit China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. It gave no further details, including how long he will stay in China and whether he will hold an official meeting with Xi, Putin or other leaders visiting China.Others coming for the parade include the leaders of Iran, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia. No leaders from the United States or other major Western European countries are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine. The parade is expected to feature some of China’s newest weaponry and a speech by Xi.If Kim’s trip is realized, it would be his first trip to China since 2019. Since inheriting power upon his father’s death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others, but all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasn’t attended any multilateral events involving foreign leaders.In all, Kim traveled to China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi.China has long been North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider, but there have been questions about their relations in recent years. North Korea has been focusing on expanding cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance.But many observers say North Korea is expected to take steps to improve ties with China to revive its troubled economy, because there is a limit to what it can get from Russia and it’s also unclear if North Korea and Russia would maintain the same level of cooperation after the Ukraine war ends. In 2023, about 97% of North Korea’s external trade was with China, while 1.2% was with Russia, according to Chinese data.Kim’s visit to China could also be related to efforts to restart diplomacy with Trump, who has repeatedly highlighted his relationship with Kim and expressed his hopes to resume talks. North Korea has so far dismissed Trump’s outreach, but many analysts say North Korea would return to talks if it believes the U.S. would make greater concessions.“Pyongyang’s illicit cooperation with Moscow has strained ties with Beijing, even as China’s political and economic support remains vital for the North Korean regime,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.“To re-engage Trump from a position of strength, Kim seeks to repair relations with Xi, and attending the parade in Beijing is a highly visible way of doing that,” Easley said.During a meeting with Lee in Washington this week, Trump spoke of his past summits with Kim, including one at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Responding to a question over whether he would return to the Demilitarized Zone, Trump told reporters, “I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy.”During Trump’s first term, he met Kim three times from 2018-19, but their high-stakes summit eventually collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim has since conducted weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade next week, the two countries said Thursday, in an event that would bring him together with a group of world leaders for the first time since taking office in late 2011.
Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesday’s parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s resistance against Japan’s wartime aggressions, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. “Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”
DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Kim will visit China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. It gave no further details, including how long he will stay in China and whether he will hold an official meeting with Xi, Putin or other leaders visiting China.
Others coming for the parade include the leaders of Iran, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia. No leaders from the United States or other major Western European countries are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine. The parade is expected to feature some of China’s newest weaponry and a speech by Xi.
If Kim’s trip is realized, it would be his first trip to China since 2019. Since inheriting power upon his father’s death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others, but all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasn’t attended any multilateral events involving foreign leaders.
In all, Kim traveled to China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi.
China has long been North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider, but there have been questions about their relations in recent years. North Korea has been focusing on expanding cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance.
But many observers say North Korea is expected to take steps to improve ties with China to revive its troubled economy, because there is a limit to what it can get from Russia and it’s also unclear if North Korea and Russia would maintain the same level of cooperation after the Ukraine war ends. In 2023, about 97% of North Korea’s external trade was with China, while 1.2% was with Russia, according to Chinese data.
Kim’s visit to China could also be related to efforts to restart diplomacy with Trump, who has repeatedly highlighted his relationship with Kim and expressed his hopes to resume talks. North Korea has so far dismissed Trump’s outreach, but many analysts say North Korea would return to talks if it believes the U.S. would make greater concessions.
“Pyongyang’s illicit cooperation with Moscow has strained ties with Beijing, even as China’s political and economic support remains vital for the North Korean regime,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“To re-engage Trump from a position of strength, Kim seeks to repair relations with Xi, and attending the parade in Beijing is a highly visible way of doing that,” Easley said.
During a meeting with Lee in Washington this week, Trump spoke of his past summits with Kim, including one at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Responding to a question over whether he would return to the Demilitarized Zone, Trump told reporters, “I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy.”
During Trump’s first term, he met Kim three times from 2018-19, but their high-stakes summit eventually collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Kim has since conducted weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.
Disney+ will release Korean drama The Tyrant on August 14, starring Jo Yoon-su, Kim Seon-ho and Cha Seoung-won.
The plot revolves around the development of a cutting-edge virus as part of ‘The Tyrant Project,’ directed by a group of rogue scientists working within the South Korean government. The project aspires to elevate their country’s political power on the global stage.
However, before the project can be finalized, a group of U.S. agents uncover the plan and demand that all samples be handed over. The bioweapon is stolen during a secret handover between Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies, which leads to both governments and a black ops team going to war to recover the virus.
In The Tyrant, Jo Yoon-su (True Beauty, Juvenile Justice) stars as vengeful assassin Chae Jagyeong and Cha Seoungwon (Our Blues, A Korean Odyssey) as cold-blooded mercenary Lim Sang.
Kim Seon-ho (Start-Up, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha) plays the role of Director Choe, the leader of the secret Korean project, while Kim Kangwoo (Le Grand Chef, Goodbye Mr. Black) stars as U.S. intelligence agent Paul.
Running for four episodes, The Tyrant is written and directed by Park Hoonjung (New World, The Witch: Part 1).
The Tyrant is another Korean title from Disney+’s 2024 slate, following the release of originals like A Shop for Killers, Impossible Heir, Blood Free and Uncle Samsik over the last few months.
South Korea’s two largest streaming services Tving and Wave are in advanced merger talks, according to Korean financial news media.
The move appears intended to strengthen the home-grown platforms which currently trail streaming market leader Netflix.
The Korean Economic Daily reported Wednesday that CJ ENM, the largest shareholder in TVing, and SK Square, the biggest backer of Wavve, could strike an agreement as early as next week. The paper reports that CJ ENM would emerge as the majority owner of a merged streaming service.
Both companies confirmed that they are in negotiations. But they said that an agreement has not yet been reached and that all options remain open.
“Tving and Wavve are currently discussing different cooperative measures that would help strengthen their competitiveness as OTT (streaming service) operators, including strategic alliances,” a CJ ENM spokesman told Variety by email.
The Korean streaming market is one of the most competitive in the world, boasting: a mixture of significantly-embedded international players; a handful of aggressive local competitors; a wealthy population of some 50 million; world class fixed-line and mobile internet connections; and chip-makers and phones giant Samsung.
Korea’s TV production industry is highly-developed, has top-notch production and creative standards and has enjoyed success on the global stage.
Local sources report that TVing has some 5.1 million monthly active users (MAUs) in Korea and that Wavve ranks fourth in the market with 4.23 million MAUs. Paid subscription numbers are lower.
Disney+, Apple TV+ and Prime Video are all operational in Korea, but Warner Bros. Discovery has not yet rolled out HBO Max in the territory.
Korean media have already speculated that a merged Tving-Wavve company could overtake Netflix in Korea. Simple arithmetic suggests that, even if there were no duplication of subscribers or users, the merged Tving and Wavve would still come up short of Netflix’s reported 11.3 million MAUs.
However, a platform merger would also have longer-term repercussions on production. CJ ENM, with its Studio Dragon and CJ ENM Studios production factories, and Wavve, already drawing on the production facilities of the public broadcasters, could eventually see control of a large portion of Korea’s content under a single roof.
Korean drama “12.12: The Day” brought life back to South Korean cinemas with a powerful $11 million opening weekend.
Directed by Kim Sung-soo and starring the reliable Hwang Jung-min and Jung Woo-sung, the film recounts a nine-hour period in 1979 in which a military coup was attempted. It is understood to be based on real events, but with a fictional telling.
It earned $11.2 million between Friday and Sunday accounting for four out of every five tickets sold in the country. Over its five-day opening run it earned $14.1 million.
That is the second highest opening by any film this year, behind only summer hit “The Roundup: No Way Out” and it is expected to achieve two million ticket sales on Monday.
The strong performance lifted the overall box office for the weekend back above $10 million for the first time since the Chuseok holiday in late September and only the second time since the summer. Nationwide box office was $14.2 million.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which had topped the chart a week earlier, was relegated to a distant second place. It earned $1.21 million for a 12-day cumulative of $4.20 million.
“The Boy and the Heron added $257,000 over the weekend to build a cumulative of $14.6 million. The Miyazaki Hayao-directed title was released five weeks ago and enjoyed two weekends at the top of the chart.
U.S. animation “Arctic Justice” was the second highest new release title of the latest weekend. It opened in fourth place with $236,000 over the weekend and $298,000 over five days.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” slipped down to sixth place in its second weekend of release in Korea earning $132,000. It has a tiny $1.28 million cumulative total.
Released two weeks ago, “The Marvels” earned $130,000 for a cumulative of $5.37 million since Nov. 8.
This image of a flyer promoting “liquid weed” is captured from an online community of Hongik University. Yonhap
Another flyer advertising suspected marijuana sales was found at Konkuk University in Seoul on Monday, prompting the police to search for the distributor.
According to officials at the university, a business card-sized flyer promoting “liquid weed” was found tucked into the window of a car parked in the basement parking lot at the schools’ Arts & Design Building earlier in the day.
“Do you need inspiration? We prepared a innovative product for you ‘liquid weed,’” the card reads, claiming the substance is “totally legal.”
“Contact me while it’s still legal!” it says, bearing a QR code on its backside.
Konkuk University issued an emergency notification warning students not to access the QR code if they find the flyer, while the Gwangjin Police Station in the district launched an investigation to track down the distributor through CCTVs.
The incident came after the same flyer was found recently at the art school’s building at Hongik University in Seoul, prompting the school to urge its students to be cautious and notify the police.
Under the drug control act, exporting, importing, producing, selling or advertising marijuana is illegal unless specifically authorized by the chief of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. (Yonhap)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran flew out of Tehran on Monday, officials said.
Flight-tracking data analyzed by the AP showed a Qatar Airways flight take off at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, which has been used for exchanges in the past. Iranian state media soon after said the flight had left Tehran.
Two people, including a senior Biden administration official, said that the prisoners had left Tehran. They both spoke on condition of anonymity because the exchange was ongoing.
In addition to the five freed Americans, two U.S. family members flew out, according to the Biden administration official. of Tehran.
“ The cash represents money South Korea owed Iran — but had not yet paid — for oil shipments. U.S. House Democrat Jason Crow said Monday that the Biden administration’s recent negotiations led to a situation in which those funds have more, rather than fewer, strings attached. ”
Earlier, officials said that the exchange would take place after nearly $6 billion in once-frozen Iranian assets reached Qatar, a key element of the planned swap.
Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, observed early Monday on MSNBC that the funds were available to Iran, and that South Korea could unilaterally have transferred them to Tehran, under terms of an arrangement struck by the Trump administration. The Biden administration’s recent negotiations led to a situation, he said, in which those funds have more, rather than fewer, strings attached.
The U.S. Treasury holds the power to reject any requested fund transfers to Iran, U.S. officials have said, even as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi claimed last week in an NBC interview that he was free under the deal’s terms to define the term humanitarian as he chose.
Observers, seeking to reconcile those positions, noted that Raisi likely had a domestic audience in mind and was expressing a view that he knew did not comport with reality.
Despite the exchange, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani was the first to acknowledge the swap would take place Monday. He said the cash sought for the exchange that had been held by South Korea was now in Qatar.
Kanaani made his comments during a news conference aired on state television, but the feed cut immediately after his remarks.
“Fortunately Iran’s frozen assets in South Korea were released and God willing today the assets will start to be fully controlled by the government and the nation,” Kanaani said.
“On the subject of the prisoner swap, it will happen today and five prisoners, citizens of the Islamic Republic, will be released from the prisons in the U.S.,” he added. “Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the U.S. side.”
He said two of the Iranian prisoners will stay in the U.S.
Mohammad Reza Farzin, Iran’s Central Bank chief, later came on state television to acknowledge the receipt of over 5.5 billion euros — $5.9 billion — in accounts in Qatar. Months ago, Iran had anticipated getting as much as $7 billion.
The planned exchange comes ahead of the convening of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this week in New York, where Iran’s hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi will speak.
A Qatar Airways plane landed Monday morning at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, according to flight-tracking data analyzed by the AP. Qatar Airways uses Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport for its commercial flights, but previous prisoner releases have taken place at Mehrabad.
The announcement by Kanaani comes weeks after Iran said that five Iranian-Americans had been transferred from prison to house arrest as part of a confidence-building move. Meanwhile, Seoul allowed the frozen assets, held in South Korean won, to be converted into euros.
The planned swap has unfolded amid a major American military buildup in the Persian Gulf, with the possibility of U.S. troops boarding and guarding commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of all oil shipments pass.
The deal has also already opened U.S. President Joe Biden to fresh criticism from Republicans and others who say that the administration is helping boost the Iranian economy at a time when Iran poses a growing threat to American troops and Mideast allies. That could have implications in his reelection campaign as well.
On the U.S. side, Washington has said the planned swap includes Siamak Namazi, who was detained in 2015 and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges; Emad Sharghi, a venture capitalist sentenced to 10 years; and Morad Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was arrested in 2018 and also received a 10-year sentence. All of their charges have been widely criticized by their families, activists and the U.S. government.
U.S. official have so far declined to identify the fourth and fifth prisoner.
The five prisoners Iran has said it seeks are mostly held over allegedly trying to export banned material to Iran, such as dual use electronics that can be used by a military.
The cash represents money South Korea owed Iran — but had not yet paid — for oil purchased before the U.S. imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.
The U.S. maintains that, once in Qatar, the money will be held in restricted accounts and will only be able to be used for humanitarian goods, such as medicine and food. Those transactions are currently allowed under American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic over its advancing nuclear program.
Iranian government officials have largely concurred with that explanation, though some hard-liners have insisted, without providing evidence, that there would be no restrictions on how Tehran spends the money.
Iran and the U.S. have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution. Their most recent major exchange happened in 2016, when Iran came to a deal with world powers to restrict its nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions.
Four American captives, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, flew home from Iran at the time, and several Iranians in the U.S. won their freedom. That same day, then-President Barack Obama’s administration airlifted $400 million in cash to Tehran.
The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners — including those with dual nationality — as bargaining chips, an allegation Tehran rejects.
Negotiations over a major prisoner swap faltered after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear deal in 2018. From the following year on, a series of attacks and ship seizures attributed to Iran have raised tensions.
Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear program now enriches closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. While the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran now has enough enriched uranium to produce “several” bombs, months more would likely be needed to build a weapon and potentially miniaturize it to put it on a missile — if Iran decided to pursue one.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. intelligence community has kept its assessment that Iran is not pursuing an atomic bomb.
Iran has taken steps in recent months to settle some issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency. But the advances in its program have led to fears of a wider regional conflagration as Israel, itself a nuclear power, has said it would not allow Tehran to develop the bomb. Israel bombed both Iraq and Syria to stop their nuclear programs, giving the threat more weight. It also is suspected in carrying out a series of killings targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists.
Iran also supplies Russia with the bomb-carrying drones Moscow uses to target sites in Ukraine in its war on Kyiv, which remains another major dispute between Tehran and Washington.
The US Department of Treasury on Friday removed India along with Italy, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam from its Currency Monitoring List.
China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are the seven economies that are a part of the current monitoring list, the Department of Treasury said in its biannual report to the Congress.
The countries that have been removed from the list have met only one out of three criteria for two consecutive reports, it said.
“China’s failure to publish foreign exchange intervention and broader lack of transparency around key features of its exchange rate mechanism makes it an outlier among major economies and warrants Treasury’s close monitoring,” said the report.
Park Ji-min plays Freddie, a French Korean adoptee.
Sony Pictures Classics
There are many remarkable things about director Davy Chou’s film Return To Seoul, but perhaps the most remarkable is his star, Park Ji-min, an artist without any previous acting experience. Park brings a memorable intensity to Chou’s volatile and vulnerable central character.
Chou’s film follows the journey of a 25-year-old French Korean adoptee Frederique Benoit, as she lands in Korea and must decide whether to find her biological parents. At first she seems indifferent, more interested in soju shots, flirting with strangers and dancing her demons away. Yet it’s hard to satisfy her need for a sense of identity without meeting the parents who gave her away. Were they indifferent about her very existence?
Chou, director of Diamond Island, spent three years writing the script, which is loosely based on a friend’s story. Having accompanied Chou to a film festival in Korea, his friend at first expressed little interest in meeting her biological family. When she suddenly arranged a meeting, Chou accompanied her, and found the reunion a moving experience. He’s familiar with the idea of belonging to two worlds, having grown up in France, the son of Cambodian parents, who escaped the Khmer Rouge regime. He only returned to Cambodia at the age of 25.
When it was time to cast Freddie, a friend suggested Park, who was born in Korea, but moved to France with her parents when she was eight. Despite her lack of training, Chou felt she was perfect for the part and her performance proves his insight. She impressively portrays the volatile, sometimes violent Freddie.
“I’m not a professional actress,” said Park. “I’ve never taken an acting course, so I think I basically trusted my instincts, because I am generally a person who trusts her instincts. The character is not too different from me. We have similarities. I think I found something inside of me that was like this character and it helped me a lot to play that role.”
“Ji-min is a visual artist,” said Chou. “So, in getting to know her, I came to understand that in order to create art, she is used to digging into the very strong intensity of her feelings”
It was obvious from the first test that she could bring his character to life.
“She was amazing,” said Chou, who produces films in Cambodia. “Because I work with a certain number of nonprofessionals in my productions, it’s possible to know from the first test—not if they are going to be a great actor—but whether they have that thing or not. That thing is the ability to forget themselves and the people around them, to be present and to lose themselves completely in their feelings. She had it immediately. As we did more tests, I felt that she was discovering some kind of pleasure in losing herself and bringing herself into intense zones of extreme emotions, which the part really required.”
French-Cambodian director Davy Chou (L) and French actress Park Ji-min attend the 75th edition of … [+] the Cannes Film Festival. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Freddie quickly switches from one intense emotion to another —from joy to regret to sadness to anger to violence—sometimes not even inside a scene but sometimes within one shot.
“The film benefited a lot from the generosity that she showed by giving 100 percent of herself,” said Chou. “Maybe if she had been a trained actress or even had the desire to be an actress it would have been different. She did not know how to protect herself when she was portraying the character, so she portrayed her in the most intense way possible.”
“Freddie is a very complex character,” said Park. “There are a lot of paradoxes in her. I think I am also full of paradoxes. I think it helped me a lot to dig into those paradoxes. To understand them, to accept them and maybe play with them.”
The film covers the span of eight years, during which Freddie tries on and disposes of identities, trying to mesh the part of herself that is Korean with the part that’s French, the part that was abandoned as a baby and the part that was loved by parents who are so very different from her. There wasn’t much rehearsal beforehand, but there were plenty of discussions in which Park helped reframe her character.
“We hadn’t met for several months because of Covid, so in summer of 21 we met again and she said, ‘well Davy, I re-read the script and I have some questions.’ Can we discuss them? I was thinking that’s part of the process. We’re going to have a two-hour meeting to resolve them and go to rehearsal but that’s not the way it happened.”
Park questioned details that defined her character: how her character was depicted, her relationship with other characters, especially male characters, and also other Asian characters. She questioned wardrobe choices, the character’s relationship with her newly discovered father and the rest of the family. Park and Chou spent more time on discussions than on rehearsals, to the point where things occasionally became tense, but ultimately they agree that the process created a richer more complex character.
“It was about me having to listen to what she had to say,” said Chou. “About having her explain things about the character from her perspective as a woman that I could never have understood.”
A lot of Park’s concerns had to do with the script’s male gaze. She called out elements she perceived as sexist and tried to explain how hard it is for an Asian woman to live in a white male society.
“He’s a man,” said Park. “We have a movie about a female character and the female character is the core of that movie. There are many things that he will never understand. Not because he’s a bad person, but he’s a man doing a movie with a very strong female character. So the problem I saw in the script was the problem that the male gaze has on a woman and particularly an Asian woman.”
“I think that’s what I love about the process of working collectively and also the process of working with non professionals,” said Chou. “They challenge you into seeing things from a different perspective. Ji-min took it to another level.”
The film, features a few non-professionals, including Guka Han as Tena and Emeline Briffaud as Lucie, but also a few notable professionals, including French actor and director Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. Korean actress Kim Sun-young appeared in the film as Freddie’s aunt and Oh Kwang-rok played her biological father. Kim plays a pivotal role in the film as the only member of Freddie’s Korean family who speaks English. Freddie’s father and grandmother copiously express their grief about having to abandon her, but her aunt at least tries to understand who she has become.
“She is a very important character, even if it is a small role,” said Chou. “Kim Sun-young’s performance is very funny. She brought humor into the film and really brings a kind of humanity. The translators, her aunt and Tena, are kind of the middle men. They ask you questions to try and make your broken history a little less broken and they try to build some bridges of communication. I’m very grateful that she was in the film.”
In the space of about 15 years over 200,000 Korean children were adopted, mostly in other countries. While the topic has been covered in various forms of Korean media, Chou felt a disparity between media portrayals and the reality of the feelings his friend and other adoptees faced.
“One of the reasons I made the film was to offer a different perspective that I believe to be more faithful to the complexity of the situation,” said Chou. “Meeting the biological parents is not the end of the pain nor is it the easy reconciliation between you and your past. It mostly opens up more questions and more pain. It’s a very, very long journey that maybe doesn’t have an end. Maybe the pain will last forever. The sadness might always exist.”
“The film shows the experience from the child’s perspective,” said Park. “It’s interesting because in Korea when there are TV shows about adoptees, tear-inducing TV shows, its mostly from the perspective of the parents. The movie, even though it is fiction, shows how the children can be damaged and sad. Maybe they will never find the answer to the question they are asking themselves.”
While offering a look into the complex legacy of adoption, Return to Seoul also provides a dynamic female character, whose brash personality and troubled evolution leaves a lasting impression.
The French-German-Belgian co-production premiered on May 22 at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Sony Pictures Classics plans to release the film in North America before the end of 2022.
Oreum Tree creates cosmetics using extract from Jo-Rit-Dae, a disruptive species in the Jeju ecosystem.
Press Release –
May 13, 2022
JEJU CITY, South Korea, May 13, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Cosmetic brand “Oreum Tree” is already drawing attention before its official launch.
Christine Yuna Jang started Oreum Tree purely out of scientific interest. While attending St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju, an international school located on Jeju Island, she happened upon the Jo-Rit-Dae crowding the entryway to Hallasan Mountain. Curious about the plant species commonly known for disrupting Jeju’s ecosystem, Jang studied various medical resources and discovered that Jo-Rit-Dae had economic value, as it reduced carbon and contained anti-inflammatory properties.
Jang took up the challenge of producing a lotion from the Jo-Rit-Dae extract. She participated in the KSEF hosted by the Korea Science and Technology Support Group, as well as the U.S. Genius Olympiad, demonstrating her exceptional talent and potential by winning a silver medal for her work entitled “Quantitative Analysis of Effective Ingredients in Jeju Jo-Rit-Dae and Research on Their Benefits to Skin Condition.”
Since then, she has launched a non-profit organization called CYJ (Collective Youth in Jeju) with her friends at school, and Oreum Tree in collaboration with DS-Tech, a B2B company specializing in products that serve both cosmetic and skincare purposes, including medical devices and microchip products. DS-Tech has played a critical role in enhancing Oreum Tree’s product completeness and capability.
A brand sparked by students’ curiosity and borne from professional research, Oreum Tree is preparing a crowdfunding campaign in collaboration with funding site Oh My Company to assist senior citizens exposed to hot sunlight, an effort to keep pace with Jeju island’s aging era. Oreum Tree is taking bold first steps as a young brand. Expectations are high for what they will do next.
SEOUL, South Korea, September 30, 2020 (Newswire.com)
– Korea’s national competitiveness will rise to the top 10 in the world if it adopts a differentiation strategy.
“Korea’s national competitiveness currently ranked 26th in 2020 may rise to 10th place or fall to 38th among 62 countries in the world, depending on the national strategy chosen by the government and businesses.” (IPS National Competitiveness Research 2019-2020) This is the result of the “IPS National Competitiveness Research 2019-2020,” which was announced simultaneously in Switzerland at 10 a.m. (Central European Time) and Korea at 5 p.m. (Korea Standard Time) on September 24. (see Table 1).
Specifically, Korea’s national competitiveness, which ranks 26th with no strategy, will fall to 38th if it takes a low-cost strategy, while it will rise to 10th if it takes a differentiation strategy. The difference in rankings shows that Korea’s competitiveness declines if it uses strategies that do not meet the changing environment and internal conditions, but there is room for drastic improvement in national competitiveness if it uses effective strategies. The report confirmed that it is effective to focus on high-quality products rather than low-cost ones to enhance the competitiveness of Korea.
The Meaning of National Competitiveness Ranking and Research Institutions
Of the three institutions that report national competitiveness, International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland announce only one type of rankings, while IPS publishes rankings in three different scenarios, depending on whether the country’s government and businesses pursue a differentiation strategy, no strategy, or cost strategy.
IMD is a Swiss business school that views national competitiveness as a good business environment for global companies to invest in. On the other hand, WEF is a research institute that hosts the Davos Forum and views national competitiveness as the industry productivity of individual countries. Therefore, in the IMD 2000 report, Malaysia’s ranking (27th) is higher than that of Japan (34th) among 63 countries as Malaysia has better investment environment than Japan, while Korea ranked 23rd. On the other hand, the WEF 2000 reported that Japan, which was highly productive, ranked 6th among 141 countries, far higher than Malaysia’s 27th, while Korea ranked 13th.
The IPS National Competitiveness Report is jointly released by three institutions in Switzerland and South Korea. The UN Institute for Training and Research (UNTAR) in Geneva, Switzerland, the Taylor Institute of Franklin University Switzerland in Lugano, and the Institute for Policy and Strategy on National Competitiveness (IPSNC) have collaborated since this year. Unlike IMD and WEF, which compare only the current conditions of each country, IPS derives the national competitiveness rankings by applying different competitive strategies of the country’s government and businesses to the current conditions. Competitive strategies include low cost strategy and differentiation strategy. A low cost strategy refers to a strategy that pursues low cost and low quality, while a differentiation strategy pursues high cost and high quality.
Korea’s strong areas of competitiveness are demand conditions, related industries, entrepreneurs, and professionals
IPS uses the “9-factor model” consisting of four physical factors and four human factors, and a chance event as the theory of determining national competitiveness.
Korea ranked 26th this year when considering only the current situations with no strategy. Specifically, among the physical factors, demand conditions (11th) and related industries (17th) ranked relatively high, business context (32nd) is in the middle, and production conditions (53rd) are low. Among the human factors, entrepreneurs (21st) and professionals (19th) ranked relatively high, politicians and bureaucrats (24th) are in the middle, and workers (44th) are low. (see Figure 1).
Looking at the ranking changes in the eight factors compared to last year, demand conditions (+5), related industries (+3), entrepreneurs (+8), and professionals (+3), which are relatively strong areas, all showed a rise in ranking, while factor conditions (-2) and workers (-24), which are relatively weak areas, all showed a downward trend. Thus, Korea is a country where the areas of strength are strengthened and the areas of weaknesses are weakened. Countries with such competitiveness structure can be very successful when applying a differentiation strategy.
Two efforts must be made for Korea to be included in the top 10 in the future. The first is the physical and human factors. Specifically, Korea should further enhance the competitiveness of demand conditions and related industries among physical factors, and professionals and entrepreneurs among human factors. In particular, in the case of related industries, Korea has a competitive edge in the industrial infrastructure such as transportation and telecommunications, but is relatively behind in living infrastructure, which measures the quality of life. Living infrastructure is an important determinant, especially for attracting multinational corporations and global talents. On the other hand, as for entrepreneurs and professionals, a good social context is required to enable high-quality entrepreneurs and professionals to work efficiently as well as to enhance their personal competences. The second is the choice of national strategy, which requires the government and businesses to adopt a more differentiated strategy. Korea can go up to 10th place if it uses an appropriate differentiation strategy within the current competitive structure. Hence, if Korean combines the improved physical and human factors with an appropriate differentiation strategy, it can be positioned in the higher ranking of the top 10 list.
Professor CHO Dong-sung, a joint researcher (IPS Chairman and Professor Emeritus of Seoul National University) said, “Factors that play an important role in an early stage of a country’s economic development are factor conditions and workers, and the appropriate national strategy should be low cost strategies. However, as the national economy matures, key factors and national strategies should change accordingly.” He then said, “Although Korea has become an advanced country, it should develop more advanced demand conditions and professionals, and pursue differentiation strategies to further enhance its national competitiveness.”
Professor MOON Hwy-chang, a joint researcher (IPSNC Chairman and Professor Emeritus of Seoul National University), mentioned “Many predict that some multinational corporations (MNCs) will leave China and reshore in their home countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. However, MNCs including Korean firms are diversifying their investments into India and Southeast Asia, generally countries around China. Given such a situation, unless Korea’s domestic business environment improves, not only will Korean MNCs be less likely to make a U-turn, but Korea-based foreign firms will also be increasingly likely to go abroad.” He stressed the importance of attracting investment from MNCs to Korea by improving the business environment for strengthening national competitiveness.
Changes in the Rankings of the Top 10
Canada, Denmark, and Singapore ranked in the Top 3 of the overall ranking for the 2019-2020 National Competitiveness Research. In particular, Canada topped the list again as it did in the previous year, while the Netherlands and Hong Kong SAR (hereafter Hong Kong) showed a relatively large fluctuation in their rankings compared to other countries. The Netherlands (ranked 7th) jumped up five places to enter the Top 10 this year. This was mainly due to Brexit as a growing number of companies have been shifting their overseas direct investment target from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands, much to its benefit. Hong Kong, on the other hand, dropped by four places and ranked 9th place. Hong Kong’s prolonged political protests have dealt a severe blow to its overall economy, leading to a drop from the upper ranking to the middle-low ranking in the Top 10.
Variation of Regional Ranking
According to the national average ranking by region and the average change in ranking compared to the previous year, the average ranking in Europe, where developed countries are mostly concentrated, is the highest by region at 26th, up 0.6 step from last year, making it the only region with a rise in the ranking among the four regions. On the other hand, Asia and Oceania ranked 29th on average, down 1.2 step from last year, America 40th on average, down 0.08 step from last year, and Africa 53rd on average, down 1.2 step from last year (see Table 2).
Media Contact: The Institute for Industrial Policy Studies Research Fellow Kim, Jae-eun Phone: 82-2-360-0771 Email: jekim@ips.or.kr
Source: The Institute for Industrial Policy Studies
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 27, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– A 25-year-old woman was found dead at a lodging in Hwasun, South Korea; a victim of a coercive conversion program. CheonJi-News reported the confirmed investigation from the Hwasung police stating the autopsy showing the possibility of suffocation and a high possibility of cardiopulmonary arrest due to oxygen deprivation. After this incident, protesting to bring awareness of Human rights violation and discrimination of religious freedom took place and petitioning for the protection of religious freedom protected by the Constitution of South Korea, Article 20 started.
Sunday, January 28, Cheonji-News reported 140,000 people attending a protest in Seoul speaking against Coercive Conversion Education. The purpose of the demonstrations is to bring awareness of the situation and to petition for a legal framework criminalizing religion-based violence. According to the Korean Civil Society NGO, Human Rights Association for Forced Conversion (HAC), Coercive Conversion Education was performed on more than 1,000 individuals, by a group of Korean pastors. Organizations such as the Association of Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (AVCCP) have reached out to international human rights groups to spread awareness. Through the petition, all branches of the HAC within many countries have gone out nationwide spreading awareness to citizens, organizations, and media as well as to the United Nations.
After the January 28 event, a Ban on the coercive conversion education has become a viral sensation, continuing to spread across the world and Human rights organizations across the nation are coming together with other organizations and groups from multiple countries, such as, the Philippines, Germany, Japan, Australia, Uganda, Kenya, Netherlands, France, Malaysia, China, and United States. Washington DC, New York City, and California all led a demonstration and the newly establish HAC of San Francisco and San Jose took part in this growing movement by practicing their rights of Freedom of Speech bringing awareness of the Forced Conversion of Religion and Human rights Violation at the San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge. Since the effect of the discrimination and the practice of the Coercive Conversion is becoming more revealed, how can we allow this to continue and to be ignored? That is why the solidarity displayed through these events will be heard all over the world.
