Korea remains firm on No. 10 for Olympics

Let the countdown begin.

The 2012 London Olympics will kick off in 10 days, and South Korea’s sight remains firmly on the numeral 10 ― as in 10 gold medals for a top-10 position in the medal table.

The Olympics, set for July 27-Aug. 12, will bring together more than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries. This year’s Summer Games will also go down as the first Olympics in which every participating country will have female athletes, as Brunei, Qatar and Saudi Arabia broke down their barriers for the first time.

South Korea will send 245 athletes in 22 sports. It’s the smallest athletic delegation since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

South Korea failed to qualify for basketball, tennis, equestrian and canoe.

London is a historic ground for South Korea. The 1948 London Olympics were the first Summer Games in which South Korea participated after gaining independence from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule. The country grabbed two bronze medals then.

Korea’s Park Chu-young takes part in a soccer practice session ahead of the Olympics on Monday. (Yonhap News)

South Korea has since grown into a global sports power, having ranked inside the top-10 in six of the past seven Summer Olympics medal standings. It has excelled in archery, judo, wrestling and taekwondo, and has recently grabbed titles in weightlifting, badminton and swimming.

“The Olympic Games will serve as the occasion for national harmony and festivities, bringing the 50 million South Koreans as one,” said Park Yong-sung, the president of the Korean Olympic Committee. “And this year’s London Olympics is even more significant, because it was also in London in 1948 that we first competed as ‘Korea.’”

In London, gold medals could come in a bunch in the opening week. Male archers begin their team event on July 28, a day after the opening ceremony, and male shooter Jin Jong-oh will compete in the 10-meter air pistol, the same event where he won silver in Beijing.

Also on July 28, swimmer Park Tae-hwan will seek to defend his Olympic gold in the men’s 400-meter freestyle. In Beijing, he won the 400-meter free gold and took silver in the 200-meter free, becoming the first South Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal. This time, he will also compete in the 200 meters and 1,500 meters, once again acting as a one-man wrecking crew for the country.

More archery, badminton and judo events are scheduled in early August. Shuttler Lee Yong-dae is a reigning mixed doubles champion, and this year, he has a new partner in Ha Jung-eun. Lee is also eyeing another gold in men’s doubles with his long-time teammate Jung Jae-sung.

Wrestling and taekwondo competitions will take place in the second week. South Korea has earned 10 Olympic gold medals in wrestling, but none came at the Beijing Games in 2008. Its Greco-Roman delegation, led by the 2004 Olympic champion Jung Ji-hyun in the 60-kilogram division, will look to begin a new streak.

South Korea swept all four weight classes that it entered in Beijing. Two of the gold medalists then, Cha Dong-min in men’s over-80kg and Hwang Kyung-seon in women’s under-67kg, are returning for a shot at their second straight title, joined by two first-time Olympians, Lee In-jong in the women’s over-67kg and Lee Dae-hoon in men’s under-58kg.

Fans of major professional sports will have little to cheer about at this year’s Olympics. Baseball, where South Korea is the defending gold medalist, is no longer an Olympic sport. South Korean men have qualified for men’s football, but the country hasn’t won an Olympic football medal in its previous eight tries and isn’t expected to end the drought this year.

Both men’s and women’s basketball teams were knocked out during qualifying. In volleyball, only the women’s squad made it to the Olympics.

A handful of athletes will try to make history in London. Yang Hak-seon will look to become the first South Korean to win an Olympic gymnastics gold. The 19-year-old competing in vault had a new scoring element named after him by the International Gymnastics Federation, called “The Yang Hak-seon.”

Whatever Park Tae-hwan does in the swimming pool is an Olympic first for South Korea; after winning South Korea’s first swimming medals in Beijing, the 22-year-old will look to become the first Korean swimmer to repeat as Olympic champ. (Yonhap News)

2NE1 holding world tour

Girl group 2NE1 is to kick off a global tour titled, “New Evolution.” The four-member group is the first girl group to embark on a world tour.

CL from the girl group 2NE1 (YG Entertainment)

Bom from the girl group 2NE1 (YG Entertainment)

2NE1, which released its single “I love you” on July 5, will kick off the global tour with a concert on July 28 and 29 at the Olympic Gymnastics Stadium at Olympic Park, Seoul. 2NE1 will then continue its tour at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Aug. 17, and at Nokia Theatre Live located in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 24. The girl group will then head to Europe. In total, 2NE1 will perform in 10 cities in seven different countries in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Dara from the girl group 2NE1 (YG Entertainment)

Minzy from the girl group 2NE1 (YG Entertainment)

Debuting with the single “Fire” in 2009, the group’s members, CL, Dara, Bom and Minzy, garnered huge success throughout Asia, firmly establishing their dominance in the K-pop music industry.

Girl group 2NE1 (YG Entertainment)

Its debut EP album containing mega-hit singles won the group various awards including at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.



(lhj137@heraldm.com)

LG Electronics to release limited edition ‘king-size’ smart TV

LG Electronics plans to release a limited edition of its new ultra-definition, 3-D light-emitting diode smart television from July 20 to Aug. 20.

Korea’s second largest consumer electronics company said that it will introduce the 84-inch LED TV model named 84LM9600, which is slightly bigger than the standard 2-meter-long king mattress.

Targeting the premium TV market, LG’s ultra-definition LED TV offers four times as high resolution as full high-definition 1,920 by 1,080-size TVs, the company said in a press release.

A model poses with LG Electronics’ 84-inch 3-D ultra-definition smart TV. (LGE)

The smart TV is also equipped with a 2.2-channel sound system, providing three-dimensional surround sound with two stereo speakers and two woofer speakers.

Offering the product at 25 million won, LG Electronics will take domestic pre-orders for only 84 3-D smart TVs, which will come in platinum and monochrome, over the next month.

The company, meanwhile, plans to display the premium product at COEX and other shopping centers in Seoul so that the public can experience its big 3-D smart TV that offers both the image and sound equivalent to what movie theaters offer.

LG Electronics said that it will market the 84-inch smart TV in North and South America, Europe and Asian emerging markets sometime in the second half of this year after it sells the limited edition TVs.

The global market for ultra-definition TVs will reach 2,900 sets this year, and increase to over 4 million in 2016, according to DisplaySearch, a display research firm.

Currently, overseas broadcasters such as BBC in London and NHK in Japan are testing in ultra-definition TV broadcasting, while Korea’s state-owned KBS plans to test it in the second half of this year.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldm.com)

DUP to politicize Korea-Japan pact

DUP to politicize Korea-Japan pact

Lee Hae-chan, left, chairman of the main opposition Democratic United Party, shakes hands with Kang Ki-kab, the new chairman of the minor Unified Progressive Party, at the National Assembly, Monday. Kang paid a courtesy visit to Lee after being elected the new leader of the minority party. / Yonhap By Chung Min-uck The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) is politicizing the stalled defense agreement between Seoul and Tokyo ahead of the crucial Dec. 19 presidential election, urging the dismissal of the Prime Minister to take responsibility for mishandling the controversial pact. “It is regrettable that President Lee Myung-bak is not yet ready to respond to our call for the dismissal of Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik (over a bid to secretly pass the Korea-Japan intelligence-protection pact),” said Rep. Lee Hae-chan, the DUP Chairman, during a supreme council meeting, Monday. “We will hold a non-confidence vote on Kim on Tuesday at the National Assembly... it would be better for President Lee to voluntarily dismiss Kim before the National Assembly takes action.” Earlier, the government came under fire for approving the Korea-Japan agreement on protecting classified military information, generally known as the General Security of Military Information Act (GSOMIA), in a swift manner during the June 26 Cabinet meeting without issuing any notice to the public or conducting a proper discussion on the matter in parliament. Prime Minister Kim officially apologized for the procedural flaws in the wake of the pact’s pullback on June 29. However, since then, main opposition party lawmakers have continuously urged the resignation of Prime Minister Kim and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, as well as pushed to scrap the defense pact with the former colonial ruler, riding on worsening anti-Japanese opinion here. Public sentiment against Japan hit rock bottom recently following Tokyo’s move to increase its self-defense capabilities, together with lingering historic animosity stemming from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the peninsula. Against this backdrop, Kim Tae-hyo, senior presidential secretary for national security strategy, resigned for masterminding the process, and Cho Sei-young, director-general of the foreign ministry’s Northeast Asian affairs bureau, was also replaced. Despite this the Lee administration indicated their intention to push ahead with the agreement arguing it would more effectively help to deter North Korea’s provocation. “(The Korea-Japan military pact) is a good item for the opposition parties to politicize,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University in Seoul. “More than anything the government pushed for the pact without gaining public consensus which could be said is totally against the basis of democracy. The other thing is that the pact is with Japan. Anti-Japanese sentiment prevails here irrespective of whether voters lean to the right or to the left.” Regarding the non-confidence vote over the Prime Minister, Shin said, support from the ruling Saenuri Party would be needed for the dismissal to actually take place because it holds the majority (150) seats in the 300-member Assembly. Meanwhile, the governing party, while criticizing the procedural lapses by the government in line with the DUP, is taking a step back to assess the effectiveness of the deal in fear of further public backlash ahead of the pivotal presidential election. Prime Minister Kim is to attend a parliamentary interpellation session on Wednesday.

muchung@koreatimes.co.kr

Awesome K-pop

Awesome K-pop : Korean girl group Kara performs during the MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia at Surf Beach, Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur, Saturday. Kara and Jay Park, also known as Park Jae-beom, participated in the MTV gig along with Justin Bieber and Malaysian singer Mizz Nina, proving the popularity of K-pop globally. The performance will be aired to some 550 million households in 160 countries next month. Reuters-Yonhap

Lee to accept resignation of close aide accused of bribery

Lee to accept resignation of close aide accused of bribery

President Lee Myung-bak on Monday plans to accept the resignation of a long-time aide suspected of involvement in a bribery scandal surrounding an ailing savings bank, the presidential spokesman said. Secretary Kim Hee-jung, who handles the personal affairs of the president, offered to quit last week after allegations emerged that he took bribes from a savings bank chief accused of a massive lobbying campaign to prevent the ailing bank from shutdown. Kim denied the allegations, but said he wanted to take "moral responsibility." Lee plans to accept Kim's resignation Monday, the president's spokesman Park Jeong-ha said. Park also denied a report the presidential office has launched an extensive anti-corruption inspection after taking over a list of possible bribe takers from the prosecution, saying the anti-corruption inspection is a routine activity and there is no other special inspection under way. Kim has worked for Lee since 1997 when Lee was a lawmaker and the bribery allegations, if confirmed, would deal yet another serious blow to the president, who saw an elder brother arrested last week on bribery charges in the savings bank scandal. (Yonhap)

Amnesty opposes 2nd term for Hyun

Amnesty opposes 2nd term for Hyun

Rights commission chief blamed for lack of independence, fairness By Kim Rahn The Korean branch of an international human rights watchdog has expressed concern in response to the reappointment of Hyun Byung-chul as Korea’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chief, saying it will damage the panel’s independence and credibility. Amnesty International Korea issued a statement on Monday to say that Hyun’s second-term bid is against the opinions of civic groups and the public. The statement came on the day the National Assembly held a confirmation hearing to decide whether to grant him another three-year term at the government-funded commission. “Hyun said the NHRC belongs to the government, raising doubt over the commission’s independence and fairness,” the watchdog said in the statement. It said since the 68-year-old chairman was inaugurated, the NHRC has remained silent on major human rights issues such as a violent police crackdown on tenants in a shopping district in Yongsan in 2009 and the investigation into MBC’s program “PD Notebook”featuring mad cow disease. “We’ve expressed worry over the appointments of commission members that seem to be politically motivated. Without collecting opinion from related civic sectors, those with little experience in human rights issues have been appointed,” it said. “It is very important that the NHRC should be comprised of members who can make fair decisions based on facts and laws. We urge the Korean government to appoint those with knowledge and experience in that field as commission members.” On the same day, workers of the commission placed an ad in a newspaper calling on Hyun to give up his bid for a second term. Under the title, “If Hyun really cares about the NHRC, he should leave voluntarily,” the ad contained remarks the chairman has made during his previous term. Some of them were: “I know nothing about the NHRC and human rights,” a comment during an interview in July 2009 right after his appointment; “Not knowing at all can be my strong point,” a reaction to the criticism that human rights is outside his field; and “It may be dictatorial but I can’t help doing so,” a comment he made when arbitrarily closing an NHRC meeting in December 2009 as other members were about ato pass a statement that the police crackdown in the Yongsan incident was improper. The newspaper notice also underscored his racist remarks including one in July 2010: “Korea has become a multicultural society. Niggers are living with us.” In a survey conducted last month on 159 workers by the commission’s labor union, 89.5 percent said Korea’s human rights have retrograded since Hyun’s inauguration. A gay rights group also opposed his reappointment. The group for homosexuals’ political power, “I Vote Pink,” said in a statement that Hyun has neglected to improve the human rights of sexual minorities. On the website of Yoido Full Gospel Church, some believers opened a homosexual online community but it was forcibly shut down. They filed a petition but the NHRC recently dropped it. “The NHRC chief, who should make efforts on behalf of gays for their human rights, has conservative Christian sentiments against homosexuality,” the group said. “During Hyun’s three-year term, almost all petitions about the human rights of sexual minorities were rejected. Hyun made the NHRC, the last resort for minorities and their human rights, powerless,” it said.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr