Korean

Chevrolet has found a bit of mojo over the past 24 months in a segment of the automotive landscape that, historically, hasn't been its strong suit: small cars. The compact Cruze was a sales leader for much of 2011 and after slowing a bit for some of 2012, was the bestselling car in its class for August. Meanwhile, GM (Chevrolet's parent) says people bought almost 74,000 of its sub-compact Sonic in its first 12 months on the market. So Chevrolet is going even smaller with the Spark.

DALIAN, China - After being held for more than two weeks, a Chinese fishing vessel and its crew were released by North Korean captors, the boat's owner said early Tuesday. The release came less than two days after news of the seizure was publicized in Chinese media - and resembled the mysterious circumstances surrounding a similar two-week abduction of crew members on three Chinese fishing boats by North Koreans almost exactly a year ago. North Koreans siphoned the fuel from the ship before releasing it, said Yu Xuejun, the owner of the Dalian-based fishing operation, in a microblog statement.

For Ulrike Ottinger, film is a canvas and the acclaimed German documentarian is as much artist as filmmaker. And so it is again with "The Korean Wedding Chest," screening Monday night at REDCAT. It opens on a snowy day, a car driving through a tunnel deep inside the belly of a mountain, as the narrator tells the story of the Ginseng man and woman, transformed into humans and given this advice: Live among them and you will understand them. They are words Ottinger took to heart, capturing the collision of ancient tradition and modern culture on the subject of love and marriage in Korea in a film that echoes the beauty, precision and care of the rituals she examines.

SEOUL - Perhaps it is merely basic human desire to keep up with the neighbors, but an increasing number of South Koreans are saying that they want nuclear weapons too. Even in Japan, a country still traumatized by the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a debate about the once-taboo topic of nuclear weapons. The mere fact that the bomb is being discussed as a policy option shows how North Korea's nuclear program could trigger a new arms race in East Asia, unraveling decades of nonproliferation efforts.

A North Korean naval ship suffered heavy damage Tuesday during an exchange of gunfire between the two Koreas along a disputed sea border off their western coasts, officials said. There were no reports of casualties, but the North Korean vessel reportedly turned and headed for port after the clash. The North Korean vessel crossed a demarcation line into southern waters about 10:30 a.m., prompting a South Korean warship to fire several warning shots, according to a news release from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Re Kim Jong Il ("N. Korean Heir Apparent Is a Bizarre Enigma," July 10): Oh oh! Seems like Caligula has nuclear capability. LELAND P. HAMMERSCHMITT Ojai

A clandestine network that helps North Koreans escape through China has gone deeper underground because of fears over what authorities in both countries have learned from the capture of two U.S. journalists who were released by Pyongyang this month, a missionary said today. When they were arrested in March, Laura Ling and Euna Lee were reporting on an underground railroad that has helped thousands of people escape from North Korea. "Their arrest reverberated through the aid network," said Tim Peters, a missionary in Seoul who oversees aid work in northeast China.

As a former South Korean intelligence agent, Kim Young-kwang knows all about subterfuge, secret documents and international intrigue. But that's just soulless spy craft compared with what he considers the most engaging case of his life. It's a 100-year-old riddle that involves heroes from two nations, a Chinese prison, a Buddhist monk, a dose of Seoul politics -- and a voice from the grave. For more than two decades, Kim has traveled across the region to sift through yellowing archives, interview witnesses and amass a vault of evidence, all in hopes of answering a nagging question: Where are the remains of Ahn Jung-geun?

The Justice Ministry said Wednesday that it freed 952 prisoners, including seven dissidents it did not identify, under a special Christmas parole.

As a Vietnam veteran, I want to respond to Hearn regarding the Korean veteran as the forgotten veteran. There is no doubt that the Korean vets never got their due. The United States was a different society in the '50s. The Korean vets never organized, never forced our society to know, to remember, the price of participating in a non-war. Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) recognizes and remembers the Korean vet. VVA has endorsed a memorial for the Korean veterans. A lone Vietnam vet, Jan Scruggs, was the force that eventually brought the Vietnam Memorial into being.

BEIJING -- The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday in Beijing that he is expecting more provocations from North Korea in the coming years and a heightened risk of confrontation. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who was speaking to reporters at the U.S. Embassy at the end of his visit here, said North Korea had become progressively more provocative with the rise of Kim Jong Un, who took over after the death of his father in December 2011. "We are no longer in a period of cyclical provocations -- where a provocation occurs and then there is a period of time when concessions are made....

Psy's new music video "Gentleman" is not only breaking YouTube records, hitting more than 145 million views in less than a week, it just got banned by his home country's biggest TV broadcaster. South Korea's KBS, a state-funded broadcaster, said Thursday it was banning the video because it shows Psy kicking a traffic cone with a "no parking" sign on it. The TV network says it has a policy prohibiting the showing of videos that abuse public property. The ban comes as "Gentleman," the follow-up to 2012's incredibly popular "Gangnam Style" that premiered last Saturday, gallops into YouTube record books.

BEIJING - U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Beijing on Saturday in hopes of turning the Chinese government's obvious frustration with North Korea's nuclear program into decisive action. Kerry's debut trip to East Asia as secretary has been shadowed by ominous threats from North Korea of nuclear attacks against the U.S. mainland and Washington's allies in the region. The Chinese have been unusually vocal in their condemnation of their old communist ally, with many prominent scholars saying it is time to cut the ties forged by Mao Tse-tung back in the Cold War era. Touching down in Seoul on Friday afternoon, Kerry met with South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, and Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.

Contrary to the adage, what we don't know about North Korea could hurt us. It's not known whether the intermediate-range Musudan missiles poised for imminent firing could reach U.S. bases on Guam or Japan, though at least the latter is thought to be likely. Neither do the geopolitical experts who track every inscrutable move of the hermit country know if a missile launch would be meant to salute late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung on his 101st birthday Monday or to demonstrate that Pyongyang has the power to instigate a nuclear conflagration.

WASHINGTON - When men who served in the Korean War with Emil Kapaun describe him, they do not talk about the acts most commonly associated with the Medal of Honor: He fell on no grenades, captured no enemy machine guns, killed no enemy soldiers. For those who spent time with him in North Korean prison camps, the Army chaplain's most heroic acts were sharing food he stole from nearby farms, washing men sick with dysentery and persuading many to keep up the brutal struggle for life.

You won't be surprised to hear that a movie called "Fists of Legend" boasts plenty of hand-to-hand (and foot-to-body) contact. But the title of this overlong yet involving Korean actioner is a wink too. It refers to a fictional TV show that recruits middle-aged citizens to relive their high school fighting days in hyped-up mixed martial arts battles, all for the chance at fleeting reality fame and quick cash. Lured to perform are three long-estranged buddies - noodle shop-owning widower and ex-boxer Deok-kyu (Hwang Jung-min)

South Korean prosecutors have indicted the leader of South Korea's main dissident coalition as part of a continuing crackdown against leftists. A prosecution spokesman in Seoul said that Lee Bu Yong, co-chairman of the Chonminyon alliance of 20 dissident groups, was charged with pro-communist acts. Lee was alleged to have tried to arrange illegal contacts with North Korea and to have organized protests in support of strikers at the Hyundai shipyard. In the past week, South Korean police have indicted two other senior officials of the dissident coalition and have seized at least 10,000 books they said contain praise for North Korean leaders.

A dull gray fog hangs over this deserted beach town, reflecting the now-gloomy psyche of a once-bustling fishing and tourist center. Park Kyu-woong stands on an empty boardwalk, pointing to the source of an unstoppable force he says took the town's life away, prompting a rash of suicides by residents who gave up hope that help would ever come. "Out there," he says grimly, motioning to the sea, "eight miles from land. On Dec. 7, 2007." On that day, Taean became the victim of South Korea's worst oil spill, when a runaway barge struck a supertanker moored offshore.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously Thursday to former Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun, a Korean War officer who is better remembered for his humility and kindness in prison camps than for his role in combat. “This is an amazing story,” Obama said at the ceremony. “Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots.” Kapaun, a Catholic priest from Kansas, died in a North Korean prison camp 62 years ago. A handful of Korean War veterans, some of whom served with Kapaun, attended Thursday's ceremony.

WASHINGTON -- Responding to concerns that North Korea is preparing to test a medium-range missile after weeks of bellicose threats, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific sought to reassure Congress on Tuesday that the Pentagon would be able intercept a missile aimed at the United States or its East Asian allies. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear said Pentagon agencies would quickly recognize if a missile's trajectory was headed into the open ocean, and that U.S. anti-missile batteries on ships and land would knock it out of the sky if it was deemed a threat.