Monday, October 08, 2007

YLE uutiset / Pop-uutiset

YLE uutiset / Pop-uutiset 7.10.2007: "Eteläkorealaiset saippuasarjat haastavat telenovelat"

Sunday, October 07, 2007

[Korea.net News, Nation, October 4 2007] Rodong Sinmun covers summit extensively

On Wednesday (Oct. 3), the second day of President Roh Moo-hyun's stay in Pyongyang, the Rodong Sinmun, the paper of the KWP Central Committee, front-paged his arrival on Tuesday in Pyongyang.

The North Korean daily extensively covered President Roh's arrival on the entire front page. It carried three photos, including one showing President Roh and Chairman Kim Jong Il shaking hands, as well as an article entitled “President Roh Moo-hyun Arrives in Pyongyang; the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Welcomes President Roh.”
[Korea.net News, Nation, October 2 2007] S. Korea's special entourage visits electronics library in the North

Members of the special entourage accompanying President Roh Moo-hyun to Pyongyang visited electronics library of Kim Chaek University of Technology on Oct. 2.

...

On a floor space of 16,500 sq-m, the library has 12 e-library rooms, 11 reading rooms for printed books, and 4 open-stack reading rooms. Its total seating capacity exceeds 2,000. The facility has about 2 million printed books and is furnished with 11.5 million electronic books which are accessible via LAN computer outside the campus and through telephone cable lines at home as well as inside the campus.
[Korea.net News, Nation, October 2 2007] Journalists set up live S. Korean broadcast in Pyongyang

South Korean journalists said Tuesday (Oct. 2) they have set up a live broadcast system in Pyongyang to allow transmission of South Korean media coverage of the second inter-Korean summit into the heart of North Korea.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who arrived in the isolated communist country for his three-day summit with its leader Kim Jong-il, has also watched the broadcast on a liquid crystal display brought from his country at a state guesthouse in Pyongyang, they said in a pool report.
[Korea.net News, Nation, October 2 2007] Internet lines of two Koreas to be linked during summit

South and North Korea will be linked via the Internet during the summit of their leaders from Tuesday to Thursday, South Korea's top communications service provider said on Monday (Oct. 1).

KT Corp. said that it will reopen for three days the optical communication network which was established in July 2005 for the video reunions of families separated by the inter-Korean border, enabling the South Korean entourage and press corps to use the Internet.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 5 2007] Korean Mobile Makers Step Up iPhone Attack

LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics will confront Apple in a Christmas battle to take down the iPhone, the "blue chip" phone in the U.S. Verizon, one of the leading U.S. mobile operators, on Wednesday unveiled three new mobile phones to compete with the iPhone, which is available only through Verizon's rival AT&T.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 5 2007] Korea Leads World In Computer Ownership, Internet Use

Korea still has the world’s highest rates of computer ownership and Internet use. Market researcher ACNielsen Korea said in a media index for 2006 and 2007 that Korea’s computer ownership stood at 88 percent and Internet use at 80 percent. That means 88 percent of Korean households own a computer and 80 percent of Koreans have logged on to the Internet during the last week.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 4 2007] Court Experiments with High-Tech Tools

A large 1-m by 1-m screen was hung in a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday. As a digital projector displayed an image on the screen, an attorney pleaded his case using a laser pointer to indicate various items.

"This shows the article posted on a jobs website. When you click the bottom of the article, people can see the photos of LG Electronics applicants. When you click a photo, the person's personal details including college and test scores are fully exposed," the attorney explained.

The trial was a lawsuit filed by people who had applied for jobs at LG Electronics on its website and whose personal information had been stolen and exposed on another website. The applicants who filed the suit are claiming damages of W20 million each.

Unlike traditional trials that use only physical documents, both parties in this case used the digital projector and screen and easy to understand language instead of technical terms. This may be the sort of "electronic trial" of the 21st century that the court has been planning.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 4 2007] Build Robot Korean Scientists to Fix Nuke Plants

Korean researchers have built a robot that can handle problems in nuclear power plants so its human operators can stay safe. The KAEROT-m3 robot can also be used in chemical plants to deal with toxic materials, so the robot has great export potential.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 4 2007] Samsung SDS Partners With French IT Services Leader

Korea’s IT service industry is now actively cultivating the global market by forging partnerships with foreign industry leaders. Samsung SDS signed a strategic alliance with the world’s no.3 IT firm Capgemini and started making inroads into overseas market. So far, Korean IT service companies focused on the domestic market without any overseas sales.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 4 2007] LG Electronics Debuts Global Roaming Phone

LG Electronics launched a global roaming WCDMA phone on Wednesday. The LG-KH1600 offers automatic roaming services in 121 countries so that users can use their own phone. In 41 countries that support WCDMA services such as the U.K., Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, LG’s new phone permits automatic roaming services for video calls as well, while the 117 countries using the GSM system, the phone still offers services for audio calls.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

[The Chosun Ilbo, October 2 2007] Music Industry Debates Copy Controls

One of the major issues facing the global music industry is the debate over locking MP3 music files with DRM, or digital rights management.

On Sep. 25, Amazon, the U.S. online retail giant, announced the launch of a digital music store selling DRM-free tracks -- meaning customers can play their downloaded music on any device.

Amazon's move is seen as a direct challenge to Apple, whose iTunes stores is the leading digital music retailer. All of Amazon's tracks are DRM-free, while Apple's are not.

DRM is a code that restricts how files can be played and shared. Tracks with DRM can typically only be played on the device that they were first downloaded to.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 2 2007] Asian Actors Form Regional Association

"It's just a small gathering, for Asian actors to become friends. This was an idea we had while drinking at a snack bar during the Pusan Film Festival ten years ago, and it's just coming true now. I know we shouldn't expect too much at first, but I think it's significant that we actors are coming together voluntarily," Ahn Sung-ki said at a cafe in Chungdam-dong, Seoul on Monday.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 2 2007] Asian Actors Form Regional Association

"It's just a small gathering, for Asian actors to become friends. This was an idea we had while drinking at a snack bar during the Pusan Film Festival ten years ago, and it's just coming true now. I know we shouldn't expect too much at first, but I think it's significant that we actors are coming together voluntarily," Ahn Sung-ki said at a cafe in Chungdam-dong, Seoul on Monday.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 2 2007] Forced Standardized Reporting is Unacceptable

A presidential delegation of 300 will leave for Pyongyang for the second inter-Korean summit on Tuesday morning. Among them is a 50 member press pool, including 23 reporters from dailies, news agencies, and Internet newspapers, seven broadcast journalists, nine photographers and 11 TV cameramen.

I am one of the reporters, but I won't have much to do during my three day stay in Pyongyang. I have been tasked with covering a dinner to be hosted by the South Korean president on Wednesday, the second day of the summit, and a farewell luncheon to be hosted by his North Korean counterpart on Thursday. The reports on these events will be sent to Seoul as joint stories with the consent of the press pool members. The stories will be shared by all media outlets, bylined from the press pool reporting from Pyongyang.

...

Though we reporters will have little to do, I feel sorry for the public. No matter which newspaper they pick up, they'll get identical stories and identical photos. Same with the commentaries on the event. There is no room at all for individual reporters or their publishers to make their views known in the joint news stories.
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 1 2007] KTF Video Calling Subscribers Top 2 Million

KTF said on Sunday that it has signed up 2.11 million subscribers to its "Show" third generation mobile video calling service, exceeding the two million mark just seven months after it was launched in March.

"It took four months for the number of Show subscribers to exceed one million on July 6, but it took only three months to surpass the two million mark," said KTF executive Yoo Seok-o. "The pace of subscriber growth is getting faster."
[The Chosun Ilbo, October 1 2007] Korea's Official Weather Forecasters Get C

Although the Korea Meteorological Administration has been operating one of the world's most advanced supercomputers since 2004, the accuracy of its weather forecasts is actually poorer than before. The reason is apparently the KMA's poor personnel structure and a weather forecast system that only rates a C- grade compared to advanced countries.
[The Chosun Ilbo, September 28 2007] Web Edges Out TV as Trusted Info Source

Asian business leaders consider newspapers the most trustworthy source of information, while web-based media has overtaken TV as the second most popular choice, German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on Thursday.

DPA cited an Asia-Pacific survey by Edelman, the world's largest PR and consulting firm, of about 1,000 business stakeholders including ranking officials, investors and senior executives from Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Singapore.
[The Chosun Ilbo, September 28 2007] Human Emotions at This Year's PIFF

A film festival is like a person: capable of making people laugh, it can also be neglected, rising and falling with the joys and sorrows of life. Nurtured with love from an early age, it prospers. So it is with the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), which marks its 12th birthday in the southern port city also spelled Busan this year. The 12th PIFF, now the leading Asian film festival, is held at Haeundae Beach and Nampo-dong in Busan from Oct. 4 to 12. The 275 films from 64 countries to be shown focus on several multiple aspects of our lives, from personal growth to alienation and family love.
[The Chosun Ilbo, September 28 2007] Samsung, Armani Team Up for Fashion Electronics

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in digital technologies, has joined hands with Giorgio Armani, a world leader in luxury products. Samsung said on Thursday that it has partnered with Armani to develop fashion electronics, with Armani handling the design and Samsung the engineering.

A Samsung official said the companies will debut the Samsung-Armani mobile phone in November, and an LCD TV in January next year.
[The Chosun Ilbo, September 28 2007] Telecoms Earned W1.36 Trillion From SMS

The three domestic mobile operators have earned W1.36 trillion (US$1=W920) in sales from the SMS service over the past three years.
[The Chosun Ilbo, September 28 2007] Chip Prices Falter While LCD Prices Recover

The price of DRAM chips, the main product in the portfolio of Samsung and other Korean electronics makers, is tumbling again. Meanwhile the price of LCDs is rising.
[The Chosun Ilbo, September 28 2007] Website Frozen over Too Many Trying to Pay Duties

Just a few hours after the end of the Chuseok holiday traffic many Koreans got caught in online traffic Thursday morning.

The website of the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute froze up disabling payments on taxes and other public duties.

The KFTC says most monthly deadlines for government bill payments fell during this year's Chuseok holiday, sending many to their computers as soon as the holiday finished.

Friday, October 05, 2007

[The Hankyoreh, October 4 2007] Pusan film festival opens with Chinese war drama

The Pusan International Film Festival opened here Thursday with an unprecedented foreign opener and the largest number of world premiers in its 12-year history.

The largest cinema event in Asia raised its curtain at the Busan Yachting Centre alongside a spectacular beach, just hours after the leaders of South and North Korea wrapped up a historic three-day inter-Korean summit in North Korea's capital of Pyongyang.
[The Hankyoreh, October 4 2007] N. Korea's Rodong Sinmun extensively covers Roh's visit

North Korea's major newspapers are giving extensive coverage of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's ongoing summit trip, with the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the (North's) Korea Workers' Party Central Committee, front-paging his arrival in Pyongyang on Tuesday.
[The Hankyoreh, October 3 2007] Covering the summit

Approximately 1,200 journalists, domestic and foreign, watch the screen intently while covering the inter-Korean summit at a press center which was set up at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul on October 2. The press center is open around the clock to journalists who are registered members of the press. The latest news and developments, which are jointly produced by the Korean press corps in Pyongyang, are sent to the press center via the Internet and are available to only those journalists who have registered with the press center in advance.
[The Hankyoreh, October 1 2007] Hynix, Ovonyx in cross-licensing agreement on next-generation memory chips

South Korean chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said Monday it has reached a cross-licensing agreement with Ovonyx Inc. of the United States to develop next-generation memory chips.

The deal allows Hynix, the world's second-largest maker of computer memory chips, to use Ovonyx's patents on phase-change memory chips, or PRAM, which many scientists say offer a higher level of performance than flash chips, widely used in digital cameras and other handheld gadgets. Ovonyx owns core patents on the phase-change chips, Hynix said in a statement. "This agreement provides Hynix with the ability to facilitate the next-generation of memory development," said Park Sung-woo, head of Hynix's research and development division.
[The Hankyoreh, September 28 2007] 'Founding father of Internet' to visit Seoul next month

Vint Cerf, known for his leading role in creating the Internet, will visit Seoul next month to attend an international forum, informed sources said Friday.

The 64-year-old American computer scientist was invited to the forum, to be held by the South Korean daily Maeil Business Newspaper in mid-October, they said.

Cerf, along with Bob Kahn, is commonly referred to as one of the "founding fathers of the Internet" for his key technical and managerial role in the creation of the Internet and its protocol during the 1970s.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

AsiaMedia :: KOREA: Morality of media questioned over nude photos

AsiaMedia :: KOREA: Morality of media questioned over nude photos:
"Civic groups, netizens, and media figures critize the lack of restraint in tabloid journalists' search for dirt on fake degree-holder Shin Jeong-ah

The Korea Times Friday, September 14, 2007
By Bae Ji-sook

The media's eagerness to dig up anything related to Shin Jeong-ah and Byeon Yang-kyoon's 'inappropriate relationship'' has infuriated people, who have described their work as that of tabloid journalists."

AsiaMedia :: KOREA: Munhwa Ilbo ordered to apologize for nude photos

AsiaMedia :: KOREA: Munhwa Ilbo ordered to apologize for nude photos:
The Korea Times Sunday, September 30, 2007
"Newspaper association says Korean newspaper damaged reputation of print media and must apologize for publishing photos of degree-faking suspect."