Irene Kahn, the secretary general of Amnesty International is in Seoul this week. Yesterday, she met with the families of the six protesters who died in January after a fired broke out when riot police raided an abandoned building in Yongsan. Khan promised the families that AI would keep an eye on how the Korean government handles the incident and expressed hopes for a more thorough investigation. Also on Khan’s agenda, are meetings with senior officials from the Justice Ministry and National Human Rights Commission. (more…)

What’s Happening is The One One Four’s guide to the events in your city and others, published throughout the week, with a weekend edition on Friday.  All events are selected from our upcoming and continuing events calendar. If you have, or know of , an event  that you’d like in our guide, email all the details and any images to info@theoneonefour.com.

EXHIBITION | “Seoul, City of Movies” at the Cheonggyecheon Museum is a collection of posters, pamphlets, screen caps, and other materials from the early years of Korean cinema. You can expect insight into the national consciousness of the day, and hey – it’s a good place to get out of the cold. The event runs through Sunday and admission is free. The museum hours are 9 AM to 9 PM on weekdays, and 10 AM to 6 PM on weekends. To get to the Cheonggycheon Museum, go to Yongdu Station (Line 2), Exit 5. The museum is a 10 minute walk from the exit. (more…)

The recently-opened Dream Forest has been on my list since it first opened, although it wasn’t until even more recently that the construction crews finished. Once the site of a theme park named ‘Dream Park’, 북서울꿈의숲 (buk-Seo-ul-ggum-ui-sup) has an appropriate English name of ‘Dream Forest’. The more developed part sits between two relatively small mountains, which have their own sets of walking trails worth checking out if you’re in the hiking mood. The Korea Herald did a report on this newly-opened area, which gives a lot of details about what to expect. (more…)

The Chosun Ilbo will catch the attention of  patiently-waiting iPhone enthusiasts this morning. It reports that the Korean launch of the will be iPhone next week. There is no official statement from KT, the official supplier of the Apple product in Korea, but industry insiders are saying that November 28th is the date. They are also saying that KT will start online reservations for the iPhone tomorrow. 150,000 units will be sold at first, ranging between w250,000 and w300,000. The article also mentions that both the 3GS  and 3G iPhone models will be available here. (more…)

What: “Lazy Lime”  ready-made lime juice.

Where: Lotte Department Store, Miasamgeori Station (Line 4), Exit 1. (Mia-dong, Gangbuk-gu)

Why:  Actual limes are difficult to find outside of select international supermarkets.

Thanks to chrisinsouthkorea for sending us this week’s Spotted!. If you spot something hard to find in Korea send a photo and details to info@theoneonefour.com and we’ll post it on The One One Four.

Gyeonggi Province is planning to build the Great Train Express or GTX to link Seoul and its satellite cities. I can forgive the name (for now), since the Chosun uses the word “superfast” in their headline for the story. Regardless, the rail link addresses the over 60% increase in traffic between Seoul and the province over the last four years and plans to drastically cut the current rail/metro commute time from a number of Gyeonggi enclaves. We’re talking Samseong to Ilsan, Goyang in 22 minutes – on a train that can travel up to 200km/hour. Great idea, but someone should really veto that name. (more…)

Branding Seoul as a world-class destination for tourists, investors, expats, and students has been the focus of numerous recent campaigns. On October 29th the 9th Seoul International Business Advisory Council brings high profile business executives from around the world to the city to discuss how Seoul can become a “global city”. Plans for the Dongdaemun Design Park intend to beautify this area of the city and when completed it will definitely help it appear more world-class. The site is not fully complete, but opened yesterday for the public to preview the areas where construction has wrapped-up. Outside of Korea, Asia’s fourth largest economy is being seen as less than world-class. Washington’s Centre for Global Development ranked Korea last out of 22 countries – for the second year in a row – in their annual Commitment to Development Index. While Korea commits less to development assistance than the UN recommended amount and imposes some of the highest trade barriers to developing-country exports, it also ranked last environmentally for  importing tropical wood and a high per-capita use of  chemicals that damage the ozone. (more…)