The Joong Ang Ilbo has a pretty interesting story about a Korean-American who was deported from the US after a number of gang and drug related arrests. He turned his life around in Korea by opening a Mexican restaurant where he cooks food that his grandmother from his third foster family taught him how to cook:
Kim and his wife, Kendra Jeong, co-run El Pino 323 in Mapo District, western Seoul, a Mexican restaurant. El Pino is the name of a pine tree near his grandmother’s house; 323 is the area code of East L.A. [PARK SANG-MOON]June 18, 2002 was a momentous day for Korea. In a World Cup match held in Daejeon, the national football team defeated Italy 2 to 1, propelling it into the quarterfinals for the first time ever.
It was a momentous day for Kim Dong-hwa too – the worst in a life of continuous lows. Kim and his sister had been abandoned by their Korean mother in infancy. As small children, they were flown from Korea to the U.S. to live with a new mother and father. The adoption didn’t take. The pair bounced around, were physically and emotionally abused. Kim ended up running with a gang in East Los Angeles. In his 20s, he was convicted of gang related crimes.
Kim was expelled from the U.S. and sent to a native land he knew nothing about. He landed on the day of Korea’s victory over Italy.
Kim recalls his first glimpses of Seoul driving in from Incheon International Airport. “It was a sea of red,” he says. The national team’s uniforms were red and fans wore red to support them and celebrate.
“It was chaos here. I thought my mind was going to blow up.
I recommend reading the rest at the link because it is a great story to read about. Kim definitely did find a good nitch to open a restaurant for because Seoul has long been lacking in quality Mexican restaurants.
A team of police and fire officials conduct an investigation on Feb. 5, 2017, into a fire that broke out at a shopping small connected to a couple of residential skyscrappers in Dongtan, a new bed town near Seoul, a day earlier. The fire killed four people. (Yonhap)
The Gwanghwamun Plaza in central Seoul starts to fill with protesters on Feb. 4, 2017, who are calling for a swift decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to permanently unseat President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached by the National Assembly on Dec. 9, 2016. (Yonhap)
Flanked by two bodyguards, a wax figure of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is unveiled at the Grevin Museum in central Seoul on Jan. 20, 2017. The museum opened its “Air Force One” zone, a replica of the office area of the U.S. presidential plane, to the public to mark Trump’s inauguration. (Yonhap)
For anyone thinking of ringing in the New Year in downtown Seoul just be warned that there will be a huge crowd of protesters to contend with. If you are in the US military I highly recommend keeping away from these protest activities:
The last anti-Park Geun-hye rally of the year will be held today, overlapping with New Year’s Eve celebrations, according to rally organizers.
“We expect to break through the 10 million people mark in the accumulated number of protesters in the 10th weekly rally on Saturday,” said a spokesman for rally organizers, which are comprised of some 1,500 civic groups. “The rally will seek to not only send the old year out, but send Park out as well, and let the new year in.”
According to rally organizers, some 8.9 million have gathered throughout the country in the weekly rallies from Oct. 29, the first.
A New Year’s Eve concert for protesters is planned from 8 p.m., with singers including Jeon In-kwon and Shin Dae-chul. Shin is the son of popular Korean singer Shin Joong-hyun, called the godfather of Korean rock ‘n’ roll. Shin took issue with the fact that his father’s song “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains” was often sung by Park’s supporters in rallies.
“These Park supporters have no right to sing [my father’s] song,” Shin posted on Facebook this month. “The anti-Park rally organizers had better recruit me. I will sing it right for them all.”
President Park, impeached by the National Assembly earlier this month, faces the judgment of the Constitutional Court over a corruption and abuse of power scandal.
The candlelight vigils are held to urge Park to quit even before the verdict by the court. Protesters have said they will rally until Park is completely removed from office.
After the performances, protesters will march toward the Blue House, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Constitutional Court. Marching toward a point some 100 meters (328 feet) from the Blue House will be permitted from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., according to the Seoul Administrative Court.
Marching to some 100 meters from the Prime Minister’s Office, and some 200 meters from the Constitutional Court will be allowed until 10:30 p.m.
Protesters will likely join the crowd in front of the Bosingak Belfry in Jongno District to celebrate the bell-ringing ceremony at midnight. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Jean Penicaut, head of France’s Lumiere Technology, refutes the Seoul prosecution’s recent conclusion on the authenticity of the late South Korean painter Chun Kyung-ja’s “Beautiful Woman” during a news conference at the Press Center in Seoul on Dec. 27, 2016. He said his art appraisal team found the work, currently housed by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, to be a fake, squarely refuting the prosecution’s conclusion, which ended a 25-years-long controversy over the work’s genuineness. (Yonhap)
Singing carols, dressed as santa: Thousands of South Koreans spending Christmas Eve in #Seoul protesting/partying in the streets. pic.twitter.com/w8V0leXt25
This issue of pollutants found at a Seoul subway station has been going on for years and it is amazing that no one has yet to figure out where it is coming from:
The Seoul city government said Monday that contaminants detected in underground water tables near a U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) garrison in the capital city were 500 times higher than normal standards.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said an average of 0.532 milligrams per liter of benzene was found around Noksapyeong Station, located near the U.S. Army base in Yongsan, central Seoul in 2016. The base has long been suspected as the source of oil leaks that have polluted both water and land.
The figure went as high as 8.811 milligrams per liter, which is some 587 times higher than the allowable level of 0.015 milligrams per liter, it said.
The total amount of petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) found near Camp Kim, within Yongsan Garrison, was 20.4 milligrams per liter on average and reached up to 768.7, which is some 512 times higher than the standard of 1.5 milligrams per liter, according to the city government.
Municipal authorities have been conducting a water table purification project since 2003, but petroleum-based contaminants have still been detected in water near the U.S. base, it said.
“Considering that the base will be returned (to South Korea) at the end of 2017, we need to establish plans on how we will clean up the pollutants,” the city government said in a press release. “But at the moment, we are not even fully aware of the circumstances surrounding the pollution.” [Korea Times]
