Seoul and Washington are striving to minimize the fallout from a knife attack against the U.S. ambassador here which triggered concerns that it may dampen public sentiment and set hurdles for the allies’ future cooperation.

Inaugurated by Kyungsoo Kim, Consul General of the Republic of Korea, Venu Srinivasan, Goodwill Envoy for Public Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea, and B.S. Seo, Managing Director, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Centre launched its arts programme with ‘Ceramic Connect,’ an exhibition of ceramics and paintings by Indian and Korean artists and a concert by E-Do, an ensemble of six talented Korean musicians, whose style blends traditional Korean sounds and jazz with contemporary stage-show dynamics.

President Park Geun-hye on Sunday urged Japan to face up to and sincerely atone for its brutalities during colonial rule as a first step to writing a “new history” with Korea for the next 50 years. In her Independence Movement Day address, she called for the two Koreas to meet to discuss reunions of families displaced by the 1950-53 Korean War, while expanding cooperation in sports, culture, arts and humanitarian areas. 

Japan and South Korea are building on a long interest in a country notable for its cheap labour and 90m-strong consumer market. From Hanoi’s point of view, there is a political imperative to draw more foreign investment because of structural economic problems such as bad debts and inefficient state companies, which have dragged Vietnam’s growth down from above 7 per cent a year before the western financial crisis to 5.4 per cent in 2013.

Korea plans to seek strategic cooperation with relevant countries including the United States and China as a means of paving a way toward unification as well as to denuclearize North Korea, the foreign ministry announced, Monday.

To many Americans, globalization may mean Americanization but, in China, globalization is Koreanization. This is the impact of Hallyu (the Korean word for “Korean wave”), which began in 1997. Hallyu began with Korean television dramas and today extends throughout Chinese life: k-drama, k-pop, movies, fashion, food, and beauty.  It is argued to be the only example of a cultural power “that threatens the dominance of American culture.”