culture
Protests continued in Seoul on Monday as negotiators from South Korea and the United States began their final round of talks, hoping to seal a free trade agreement (FTA), organizers and police said.
In an interview with domestic Internet media, the president said an FTA between Seoul and Washington will not lead to the Americanization or polarization of Korean society.
Malaysia’s controversial guidelines on foreign participation in the distributive trade sector are one of 58 outstanding issue in the ongoing free trade talks with the United States.
This second of two installments on Korea focuses on the perceived impact to Korea’s agricultural sector posed by a looming free trade agreement with the United States. Mark Winne explores food sovereignty and the culture of food in Korea and the priveleged role that rice has in the society. Should cost and price be the sole determinants of trade policy or should other variables such as the culture of food be considered in trade policy formulation?
Dozens of South Korean artists took to the streets Friday to oppose a free trade deal with the United States, adding their voice to protests just days before the trade talks were to resume.
The Korean government has pledged behind-the-scenes to accept US demands for reducing the screen quota to remove obstacles to free trade agreement (FTA) talks, according to a ministry memo obtained by The Korea Times. "Our position for the future is that Korea will by all means keep its promise to the US to maintain the reduced screening quota (or further curtail it). It is a promise between the two countries," said the memo.
With the fourth round of talks underway for a proposed free trade agreement (FTA), the US has reportedly made a proposal regarding protections currently in place on the South Korean film industry.
Fresh from acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival for creating a South Korean "Jaws," the director Bong Joon Ho staged a lone protest outside the Culture Ministry in Seoul, shouting slogans and raising a red placard.
The US wants Korea to open 11 service sectors including broadcasting and telecommunications, home delivery, legal and accounting services. In a third round of bilateral free-trade negotiations, the service sector is tipped to be the main stumbling block since Seoul has a mind to give in to few US demands except letting some US law firms operate here and some others.
Starting July 1, South Korea will reduce the quota for the number of days domestic movies must be screened in local theaters. The move follows a requirement from Washington that the quota be reduced in order to begin free trade negotiations with Seoul.
"The fight to save the Korean screen quota isn’t only for the benefit of the Koreans, but it is also for the global cultural movement."
Films from South Korea may not be as prominently featured in the program of the 59th Cannes Film Festival as in recent years, yet Korean cinema is garnering attention, thanks to the struggle by industry people to defend the screen quota system.
A group of South Korean movie workers left for France Monday to protest at the Cannes film festival against South Korea’s plan to sign a free trade pact with the United States, representatives of the group said.
President Roh Moo-hyun’s public relations secretary Lee Baek-man has rejected criticism from circles close to the government that a planned free-trade agreement with the US would amount to selling out the nation.
Korean culture and entertainment industries will suffer considerable damage from a Korea-US free trade agreement (FTA), a local think tank warned Friday.
Members of the local film industry and civil activists began in Seoul Monday a 146 day all-night rally in protest to the government’s decision to halve the screen quota system.
A controversial plan reducing the country’s screen quota by half has been approved by the government amid fierce protests from the film industry.
What message does it send to the world when we unquestioningly enter into an agreement with a country who seeks to change the rules of the international game in order to win?
Some 2,000 South Korean farmers, movie-makers and anti-US activists staged a candlelight protest Friday against free trade negotiations with the United States.
South Korea’s movie industry ground to a halt on Wednesday, as dozens of stars and hundreds of film workers protested against a government move to cut protection for the industry to smooth free trade talks with the United States.
