The Korea Society

May 6, 2015 - Donald Southerton, CEO of Bridging Culture Worldwide and Author of 'Korea Facing: Secrets for Success in Korean Global Business' and 'Hyundai Way: Hyundai Speed', discusses his latest book, 'Korea Perspective'. Mr. Southerton’s new work distills years of experience consulting for top Korean corporations in the automotive, golf, land development, green technology, and retail sectors, and provides strategies and solutions for Korean companies operating globally.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/korea_perspective.html

May 5, 2015 - Choong Sup Lim builds bridges between different worlds. He combines sculpture, painting, and found objects to assert a harmony among contrasting concepts, such as the regimentation of modern civilization and a chaotic universe, urban and rural life, and the West and Korea. To Lim, the emphasis on distinctions conceals a deeper truth, which he seeks to uncover through an “emptying of self” and a patching of the “in-betweens.”

The installation artwork in this exhibition, Luna, And Her Thousand Reflections, blends light, video, architecture, and elements from Korea’s traditional weaving culture, and employs moon imagery to reference an important debate on the nature of principle and material force that occupied Confucian scholars in 16th century Chosŏn Korea. It was the title piece of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea’s 2012 retrospective of Lim’s work, and was modified by the artist to fit our space.

Born in Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk-do, Lim attended Seoul National University before continuing his studies in New York City, where he now lives and works. Lim’s art is part of the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, and the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Korea.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Dongwha Cultural Foundation.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/exhibition/void.html

May 5, 2015 - Ambassador Gheewhan Kim, in his first major address as the new Consul General at the Korean Consulate General in New York, discusses the KORUS FTA and the Korea-U.S. economic partnership. With the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, Korea has become America's 6th largest trading partner, surpassing Great Britain and France. Korea-U.S. bilateral trade volume has risen 11.6% from $103.6 billion in 2013 to $115.6 billion in 2014, while Korean investment in the U.S. jumped 16.8% to $6.25 billion in 2014, which contributes to the strengthening of the U.S. economy.

Amb. Kim reflects on KORUS FTA’s achievements and also looks at ways to deepen economic cooperation to effectively address global economic issues.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/korus_fta_and_the_korea_-_u.s._economic_partnership.html

April 30, 2015 - Katharina Zellweger, former North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, discusses current research on the issue of people with disabilities in North Korean society. Ms. Zellweger, who first visited the DPRK over 20 years ago, worked in North Korea from 2006-2011 on humanitarian aid and development assistance.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/people_with_disabilities_in_a_changing_north_korea.html

April 23, 2015 - Interweaving cultural, intellectual, and literary history, Professor Janet Poole, author of When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea, looks at Korean writers in the final decade of Japanese colonial rule.  Korean writers, including Yi T’aejun, Ch’oe Myŏngik, Im Hwa, Sŏ Insik, Ch’oe Chaesŏ, Pak T’aewŏn, Kim Namch’on, and O Changhwan, used various strategies to narrate life as colonial subjects of an empire headed toward total war, producing some of the most sophisticated writings of twentieth-century modernism.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/literature/literature_in_late_colonial_korea.html

April 16, 2015 - Phil Suttle, Director of Global Economic Analysis for Tudor Investment Corporation, and Charles Kimball, Managing Director for Korea Center for International Finance, offer analyses on the state of the South Korean economy and how deflationary concerns affects prospects for growth.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/corporate/koreas_economic_outlook.html

March 18, 2015 - Author and journalist Blaine Harden discusses his new book, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom, with Kenneth Rowe (No Kum Sok), the former fighter pilot in the North Korean Air Force who defected to South Korea in his MiG-15 in 1953. The book interweaves Rowe’s story with that of Kim Il-Sung’s rise to power during the Korean War.

Using government documents found in Chinese and Russian archives related to the role of Mao and Stalin in Kim’s rise to power, as well as Rowe’s never-before-released FBI, CIA, and US Air Force files, Harden has written a heart-pounding escape adventure that provides an entirely new way to understand the world’s longest-lasting totalitarian state.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/literature/the_great_leader_and_the_fighter_pilot_with_blaine_harden.html

March 5, 2015 - Alan McGlade, Managing Director of DEV (Digital Entertainment Ventures) and Co-CEO of DEV Korea, discusses investment opportunities in Korean startups and suggests ways to build collaborative bridges between New York and Seoul through DEV’s new fund. 

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/investing_in_korean_startups.html

February 19, 2015 - Be inspired by the story of a young woman who overcame life’s challenges to launch a business and fulfill her dream of visiting NYC during Fashion Week! Su Kyung Kim, the 19-year-old founder and CEO of Korean online shopping mall Victoria Garconne, discusses overcoming personal and financial hardships, launching a fashion retail business at age 15, and growing it into a million-dollar company before turning 20.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/contemporary-korea/koreas_online_shopping_mall_phenom.html

February 25, 2015 - Marking a year since the release of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) Report on North Korea, Dr. Victor Cha, Senior Advisor and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Director of Asian Studies, Georgetown University, speaks to the significance of the report and steps forward. Dr. Cha will be joined by Lindsay Lloyd, Program Director at the Bush Institute, in a session introduced by The Korea Society SVP Dr. Stephen Noerper.

For more information, please visit the link below:
http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/human_rights_and_diplomacy_on_the_korean_peninsula.html