Latest news with #Choi
Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
South Korea must brace for slow growth, invest in AI to survive, experts warn
A financial risk strategist and an AI scholar on Thursday warned that South Korea must brace for a prolonged low-growth era, urging businesses and individuals to prepare for structural changes in the economy — from the fragmentation of global trade to the explosive rise of artificial intelligence. Speaking at the Global Business Forum hosted by The Korea Herald in Seoul, Cho Bong-hyun, executive vice president of IBK Insurance, said Korea is entering a structural downturn that may resemble Japan's lost decades and warned that the country can no longer rely on past growth formulas to stay competitive. 'We are not just facing a cyclical slowdown,' he said. 'We are entering a new normal of low growth, and it will be long-term.' Cho pointed to persistent inflation in the US, the likelihood of extended high interest rates and a slowing Chinese economy as external risks. But he emphasized Korea's internal vulnerabilities as even more urgent. 'Domestic demand is weak, household debt remains high and the housing market is unlikely to rebound even with monetary easing,' he said. 'Asset prices are entering a correction phase.' On the structural front, Cho highlighted the looming demographic crisis. "Starting in 2025, Korea will see a steep decline in its working-age population. This will shake the foundations of our pension, labor and financial systems,' he said. 'It may sound pessimistic,' Cho added, 'but preparing for the worst-case scenario is wiser than clinging to outdated assumptions.' To respond to these complex transitions, Cho urged Korean businesses to embrace what he called 'dynamic balancing,' the ability to alternate between outward expansion and internal consolidation depending on global and domestic conditions. 'Now is not the time for blind expansion or excessive risk aversion,' he said. 'We need companies to be nimble, and capable of both advancing outward and consolidating inward, depending on shifting conditions.' Yet flexibility alone, he said, is not enough. 'In a time of low growth, innovation isn't just a choice. It's the only way forward.' Meanwhile, Choi Jae-boong, a mechanical engineering professor at Sungkyunkwan University, said the next three years would be decisive for Korea's future in AI. 'AI development is accelerating like a revolution,' Choi said. 'After three years, the pace will slow. You must act now.' He cited the explosive growth of US-based AI firms, noting that the combined market capitalization of the top seven US AI companies surged from $13 trillion in 2024 to over $17 trillion in 2025. 'In contrast, Korea's largest company is worth only $400 billion,' he said. 'We must ask ourselves — are we part of the future or not?' Still, Choi said Korea has a unique strength: its world-class hardware and manufacturing capabilities. He pointed to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as key suppliers of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI training, including models such as ChatGPT. 'These firms are already powering the AI engines of today,' he said. 'No AI runs without hardware, and that hardware often starts in Korea.' He added that while countries like China may have scale, they lack the geopolitical trust necessary to be a reliable partner in global supply chains. 'The US needs partners who are both technologically capable and politically aligned. Korea fits both criteria,' Choi said. To seize that opportunity, Choi emphasized, Korea must escape its bureaucratic mindset. 'Too often, innovation is paralyzed by questions like: 'Who will take responsibility if it fails?'' he said. 'But while we hesitate, others are already building.'
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
24 Books Coming in June
The First Gentleman For their third thriller together, Clinton and Patterson dream up a political nightmare: The president's husband is on trial for murder as she is up for re-election. Two journalists dig into the first gentleman's past, which includes an N.F.L. stint. 'We're admittedly pretty tough on our fictional presidents,' Clinton has said of himself and his writing partner — putting it mildly. Flashlight One night, a man and his 10-year-old daughter take a walk on a beach; the next day, the girl is found nearly dead, and her father has disappeared. Choi's latest novel tells the sweeping story of this fractured family: Serk, the father, an ethnic Korean man born in Japan who emigrates to the United States in the 1960s; his former wife, Anne, an American dealing with the fallout of mistakes in her youth; and their daughter, Louisa, whose childhood is defined by crisis and pain. Atmosphere The best-selling author of 'Daisy Jones and the Six' and 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' turns to the skies for her latest novel. Joan is selected as one of the first women to join NASA's astronaut corps and quickly proves to be a formidable, even-keeled member of her cohort. The book opens in 1984 with a mission gone awry, and leapfrogs from there between the crisis and Joan's pre-NASA life, training and eventual love story with a colleague. The Listeners Stiefvater, a popular young adult fantasy author, makes her adult debut with this supernatural twist on a real but seldom discussed part of American history. Set during World War II, 'The Listeners' follows June, the manager of the luxurious Avallon Hotel in West Virginia, who is forced by the government to comfortably house captured Axis diplomats. It's an ethically fraught assignment on its own, but the presence of these contemptible guests also threatens the magical springs that run underneath the hotel. The Catch Daley-Ward, a poet and memoirist, turns to fiction with this psychological thriller about twin sisters, Clara and Dempsey, who were separated as children after their mother's death. Thirty years later, they are reunited — each spiraling in her own way. But when Clara sees a woman who seems to be their mother, but who hasn't aged a day since she vanished, it upends everything the sisters thought they knew. The Dry Season Reeling from the end of a 'ravaging vortex' of a relationship, Febos — a self-described serial monogamist who gave up alcohol and drugs at 23 — decides to give up sex and dating at 35, if only for three months. 'To my great surprise,' she writes, those months become 'the happiest of my life,' and turn into a year. This ode to female celibacy interweaves personal memoir with literary and historical research, incorporating the influence of Sappho, Virginia Woolf, Octavia E. Butler and others. Mother Emanuel When a white supremacist murdered nine congregants during a Bible study at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, he struck at the heart of an institution central not only to Black life in the city but also to the history of the South. Sack's sweeping account, a decade in the making, situates the massacre within a larger story about the rise of the African Methodist Episcopal Church during the 19th century, its role as a champion of Black resistance and civil rights, and the often brutal efforts by white authorities to restrict its members' freedom. Buckley William F. Buckley Jr. — American conservatism's most eloquent pundit, the founder of National Review magazine, host of 'Firing Line,' columnist, novelist and champion debater — left an outsize imprint on the political right before it was overtaken by MAGA. Tanenhaus's immersive authorized biography recounts a singular life rich with incident (and a few scandals), from Buckley's affluent Catholic childhood to his apotheosis as a political kingmaker who grasped better than almost anyone else how to adapt politics to the media age. What Is Queer Food? In this ambitious work of social history, Birdsall unspools the story of how queer culture has informed what we eat. From the restaurant world to the AIDS crisis, the recipes of Alice B. Toklas and the preferences of Truman Capote, Birdsall presents a soup-to-nuts-to-brunch-to-all-night-diner portrait of the inextricable link between queerness and food that's as much cultural criticism as delicious celebration. The Gunfighters In this chronicle of the way real-life cowboys and their high-noon duels captured American attention in the late 1800s, Burrough takes readers on a wild tour of the West, complete with roaming buffalo, lawless lawmen and gunfights galore. His focus is Texas, a crucible of violent mythmaking and transformative change, where Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and more loped their way into legend. Charlottesville Shocked by the violence unleashed by the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. — her hometown — in 2017, Baker returned to the city to try to understand the factors that led to that weekend and, eventually, to the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Encompassing activists, clergy, students and politicians, as well as neo-Nazis and white supremacists, her account draws on her knowledge of local and Southern history to create a deeply researched, and deeply felt, portrait of contemporary America. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil Schwab, best known for books like 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue' and 'Vicious,' returns with a time-sweeping, character-juggling, lesbian vampire mystery. Jumping between 1532 Spain, 1827 London and 2019 Boston, the novel follows three women, all woefully constricted by societal conventions. Each is given the power to change her fate — transformations that come with new appetites and huge risks. Great Black Hope Less than a gram of cocaine in his pocket launches Smith, the protagonist of Franklin's debut novel, into an ordeal involving the criminal justice system, intense personal reflection and the many complexities of being a queer, Stanford-educated Black man facing both high expectations and low opinions from his own friends and family. So Far Gone The latest novel by the best-selling author of 'Beautiful Ruins' is a family caper set in rural northeastern Washington State, where a retired environmental journalist has lived for years in utter seclusion — no phone, no running water, only a single dirt road connecting him to the outside world. That is, until one spring day when his grandchildren, ages 9 and 13, arrive on his doorstep to tell him that their mother, his daughter, has gone missing. King of Ashes Cosby's latest thriller is a high-octane story of a family imploding. Roman Carruthers is a successful wealth manager in Atlanta who is suddenly called home to Virginia after a car crash leaves his father in a coma. Roman soon discovers that his father isn't the only one struggling: His brother is being hounded by gangsters to whom he owes a tremendous debt, his sister is worn down taking care of the family business, and, it turns out, the car crash that injured their father might not have been an accident after all. Murderland This work of speculative true crime by a Pulitzer Prize winner returns Fraser to the Pacific Northwest where she grew up, a region once known for both its toxic industry — including a mammoth copper smelter in Tacoma, Wa. — and its serial killers. Fraser provocatively connects the two, tracing suggestive links between the poisoned air, water and soil, and the violence perpetrated by men like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and Gary Ridgway. The Sisters The three Mikkola girls have always been different; the daughters of an eccentric Tunisian mother and an absent Swedish father, they never quite seemed to fit with the people around them. As the sisters crisscross the world from Stockholm to Tunis to New York, their lives are recounted by their childhood friend Jonas, who is also Swedish Tunisian — and who closely resembles the author. Fox Oates's new novel — we've given up trying to count them — centers on Francis Fox, a predatory middle-school teacher who charms parents and colleagues but grooms and abuses his female students. When Francis disappears and human remains are found near his car, a detective must piece together the story of his sordid past. Bug Hollow It's the mid-1970s in the California suburbs when the teenage baseball star Ellis Samuelson goes missing, and then dies in a freak accident only weeks after he's returned. Huneven's sprawling family epic follows the ripple effects of this event across generations of the Samuelson clan — from Ellis's alcoholic mother and adulterous but well-meaning father to his younger sisters, his pregnant girlfriend and their daughter. Sounds Like Love In Poston's latest paranormal romance, Joni, a songwriter whose inspiration has run dry, returns to her North Carolina hometown hoping to get her musical groove back. As she navigates strained friendships and family drama, she starts hearing a faint melody in her head, along with a man's voice — which turns out to belong to Sasha, a musician who is just as flummoxed by their psychic connection as she is. Hoping it will cut off their access to each other's most intimate thoughts, the pair agree to work together to turn the melody into a song. The Möbius Book Start from the front cover of Lacey's latest and you're reading a novella about two women chatting about a third friend over drinks — while a puddle of blood pools nearby. Flip it over and you're reading a memoir in which Lacey takes stock of a relationship gone south. Is there a connection? Leave it to the gnarly author of 'Biography of X' to put you to work. Claire McCardell The designer Claire McCardell is often credited as the inventor of American sportswear — practical separates, flats, wrap dresses, pocketed skirts and zippers women could do up themselves. In the hands of Dickinson, this is more than just the biography of a fashion revolutionary: It is a story of the fight for women's identity and, incidentally, the birth of an American industry. The Compound In a house in the middle of a desert, 19 men and women — all young, single and attractive — flirt and compete for 'rewards' that range from the necessary (wood to build a front door, sunscreen, food) to the luxurious (makeup, clothing, diamond earrings). They are contestants on a reality show whose ominously enforced rules prohibit sharing any detail of their personal lives — and dictate that anyone who sleeps alone, e.g. without a member of the opposite sex, will be expelled. Rawle's eerie debut is an 'Animal Farm' for our age of relentless materialism. 'Make It Ours' When Virgil Abloh was named head of men's wear for Louis Vuitton in 2018, he became the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand's history. In 'Make It Ours' — a biography both of the designer's short, impactful life and of the changing face of luxury — Givhan shows how Abloh's unusual path reflected not just a sea change for one house, but an industry figuring out its place in the modern world.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Veteran K-drama actor Choi Jung-woo, known for ‘Doctor Stranger' and ‘Master's Sun', dies at 68
SEOUL, May 28 — Veteran South Korean actor Choi Jung-woo died yesterday morning at the age of 68. His agency, Bless Entertainment, confirmed his death the same day but did not disclose the cause. Yonhap News Agency reported that Choi had been battling depression and panic disorder. Bless Entertainment said, 'Choi Jung-woo passed away on the morning of May 27. Please pray for the deceased's final journey.' A funeral altar has been set up at Gimpo Woori Hospital. The funeral will take place at 10am tomorrow, and Choi will be laid to rest at Suwon Yeonhwa Park. Born in February 1957, Choi began his acting career in 1975 with the stage play The Life of an Actor, according to Korea JoongAng Daily. His work spanned nearly five decades, with roles in films such as Two Cops (1996) and Project Silence (2023). Choi was known for portraying dignified characters in dramas including The Tale of Lady Ok (2024), A Place in the Sun (2018), Alice (2020) and Quiz of God (2010). He also appeared in Doctor Stranger (2014) and Master's Sun (2013), where he played the secretary to So Ji-sub's character. His final project was the KBS2 drama Who Is She, which aired its last episode in January this year.
The Star
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Star
Lawsuit over false adoption
A 72-year-old mother has filed a lawsuit against South Korea's government and its largest adoption agency, alleging systematic failures in her forced separation from her toddler son who was sent to Norway without her consent. Choi Young-ja searched desperately for her son for nearly five decades before their emotional reunion in 2023. The damage claim by Choi comes as South Korea faces growing pressure to address the extensive fraud and abuse that tainted its historic foreign adoption programme. In a landmark report in March, South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the government bears responsibility for facilitating an aggressive and loosely regulated foreign adoption programme that carelessly or unnecessarily separated thousands of children from their families for multiple generations. It found that the country's past military governments were driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs and empowered private agencies to speed up adoptions while turning a blind eye to widespread practices that often manipulated children's backgrounds and origins, leading to an explosion in adoptions that peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. Children who had living parents, including those who were simply missing or kidnapped, were often falsely documented as abandoned orphans to increase their chances of being adopted in Western countries, which have taken in around 200,000 Korean children over the past seven decades. Choi's lawsuit follows a similar case filed in October by another woman in her 70s, Han Tae-soon, who also sued the government and Holt Children's Services over the adoption of her daughter who was sent to the United States in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at the age of four. Choi says her son, who was three years old at the time, ran out of their home in Seoul in July 1975 to chase a cloud of insecticide sprayed by a fumigation truck while playing with friends – and never came back. She and her late husband spent years searching for him, scouring police stations in and around Seoul, and regularly bringing posters with his name and photo to Holt, South Korea's largest adoption agency. They were repeatedly told there was no information. After decades of searching in vain, Choi made a final effort by submitting her DNA to a police unit that helps reunite adoptees with birth families. In 2023, she discovered through 325Kamra, a volunteer group helping adoptees find birth families using DNA, that her son had been adopted to Norway in December 1975, only five months after he went missing. The adoption had been handled by Holt, the very agency she had visited countless times, under a different name and photograph. Emotional moment: Kim sitting for a portrait as tears start welling up in her eyes in her Seoul apartment in this file photo from May 19, 2024.— AP Enraged, Choi confronted Holt and has since worked with lawyers to prepare a lawsuit against the agency, the South Korean government and an orphanage in the city of Suwon where her son stayed before being transferred to Holt. Her now 52-year-old son, who travelled to South Korea in 2023 to meet her, has declined to comment on the story. The 550 million won (RM1.69mil) civil suit recently filed with the Seoul Central District Court alleges that the government had failed in its legal duty to identify Choi's son after he arrived at an orphanage – despite her immediate police report – and to verify his guardianship as he was processed through a state-controlled foreign adoption system. The orphanage and Holt failed to verify the child's status or notify his parents, even though Choi's son was old enough to speak and showed obvious signs of having a family. In particular, Holt falsified records to describe him as an abandoned orphan – even though Choi had visited the agency looking for him while he was in its custody, before the flight to Norway, according to Jeon Min-kyeong, one of Choi's lawyers. South Korea's Justice Ministry, which represents the government in lawsuits, said it cannot comment on an ongoing case. Park comforting Kim during a press conference in Seoul, in this file photo from March 26, 2025. — AP Choi and Han are the first known birth parents to sue the South Korean government and an adoption agency over the allegedly illegal adoptions of their children. In 2019, Adam Crapser became the first Korean adoptee to sue the Korean government and an adoption agency – Holt – accusing them of mishandling his adoption to the United States, where he endured an abusive childhood, faced legal troubles and was eventually deported in 2016. But the Seoul High Court in January cleared both the government and Holt of all liability, overturning a lower court ruling that had ordered the agency to pay damages for failing to inform his adoptive parents of the need to take additional steps to secure his US citizenship. The truth commission's findings, released in March, could possibly inspire more adoptees or birth parents to seek damages against the government and adoption agencies. However, some adoptees criticised the cautiously worded report, arguing that it should have more forcefully acknowledged the government's complicity and offered more concrete recommendations for reparations for victims of illegal adoption. During the March news conference, the commission's chairperson, Park Sun-young, responded to a plea by Yooree Kim, who was sent to a couple in France at age 11 by Holt without her biological parents' consent, by vowing to strengthen the recommendations. However, the commission didn't follow up before the final version of the report was delivered to adoptees last week. The commission's investigation deadline expired on Monday, after it confirmed human rights violations in just 56 of the 367 complaints filed by adoptees since 2022. It had suspended its adoption investigation in April following internal disputes among progressive- and conservative-leaning commissioners over which cases warranted recognition as problematic. The fate of the remaining 311 cases, either deferred or incompletely reviewed, now hinges on whether lawmakers will establish a new truth commission through legislation during Seoul's next government, which takes office after the presidential election on June 3. The government has so far ignored the commission's recommendation to issue an official apology to adoptees. — AP
News18
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Choi Jung-Woo, Veteran South Korean Actor, Dies At 68
Last Updated: Veteran South Korean actor Choi Jung Woo passed away at 68 on May 27, 2025. Veteran South Korean actor Choi Jung Woo, a towering figure in the world of Korean entertainment, has sadly passed away at the age of 68. The news of his death on May 27, 2025, has left the industry and fans heartbroken, His agency, Bless ENT, confirmed the tragic news, though they did not reveal the exact cause of his death. Post that, there have been outpouring of tributes from both fans and fellow actors. Choi was born on February 17, 1957, and started his acting journey in 1975 with the stage play The Life of an Actor. His deep voice and commanding presence led him to join Dongyang Broadcasting as a voice actor in 1980, expanding his reach into different mediums. Over the years, he became a familiar face on screens large and small, respected for his emotional depth and memorable character portrayals. His funeral is scheduled for May 29 at 10 am and will take place at the Woori Hospital Funeral Hall in Gimpo. According to the agency, he will be laid to rest at Suwon Yeonhwa. The solemn occasion is expected to be attended by colleagues, friends, and admirers who wish to pay their respects to him. Choi Jung Woo was not just an actor; he was a symbol of dedication to craft. In 1999, he was honoured with the Best Actor award at the 36th Dong-A Theatre Awards. His body of work is as impressive as it is diverse. He starred in well-known dramas and films such as God's Quiz, Two Cops, Public Enemy 2, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, The Chaser, Brilliant Legacy, Prosecutor Princess, Midas, My Daughter Seo Young, Master's Sun, Call It Love, Tyrant, Who Is She, and The Tale of Lady Ok. May his soul rest in peace! First Published:
