Soo

Back in the days of Red scares, blacklists, suspicion and smear, Kim Soo-im was singled out as a one-woman axis of evil, a villainess without peer. "The Korean Seductress Who Betrayed America," as the U.S. magazine Coronet labeled her, was a Seoul socialite said to have charmed secret information out of one lover, an American colonel, and passed it to another, a top communist in North Korea. In June 1950, as North Korean invaders closed in on this panicked city, Kim was labeled a "very malicious international spy" by the South Korean military and hastily executed.

As detectives pieced together the 2008 slaying of a young Santa Monica woman, they came to a chilling conclusion: She had been calling police for help when the killer snatched the phone from her hands and hung up. Prosecutors unveiled the eerie account of the 911 call and other details from the March 2008 killing that has attracted national attention during secret grand jury proceedings against Kelly Soo Park, the woman arrested in June this year...

South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo's "Night and Day" will have its Los Angeles premiere Saturday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Shot on location in Paris, the comedy revolves around a married Korean painter living in exile in the City of Light. Hong will participate in a Q&A after the screening. Other Hong films will be screening at LACMA this weekend: "Turning Gate" and "Tale of Cinema" are scheduled for Friday, and "The Power of Kangwon Province" screens Saturday before "Night and Day."

This year's international film festival circuit has been a showcase for South Korean cinema, with a handful of major filmmakers delivering new works alongside first-time directors making notable debuts. AFI Fest, which kicked off Thursday in Hollywood, spotlights six films from this wave. In the festival's World Cinema section are "Hahaha" (a prize winner at Cannes) and "Oki's Movie," two films by Hong Sang-soo, known for his candid explorations of the complexities of modern everyday life.

Rio Grande Industries said today that it is trying to buy 500 miles of railroad between Kansas City and Chicago from Soo Line Corp. of Minneapolis. The track would give Rio Grande, parent of the Southern Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads, its first direct link to Chicago from the West Coast. The railroad now must transfer goods to other lines, including Soo, in Kansas City. Rio Grande said it is optimistic that it will be able to reach an agreement with Soo for the Kansas City-Chicago line, which passes through Missouri, Iowa and northern Illinois.

Rail Employees Ordered Back to Work: The White House ordered striking Soo Line Corp. railroad workers to return to their jobs, temporarily easing an unusual fratricidal battle between two rail labor unions that threatened to spread into a national strike. The impact of the seven-week walkout against Minneapolis-based Soo, which operates 5,033 miles of railroad radiating from Chicago to nine Midwestern states, had been limited to the upper Midwest. But the situation began unraveling Aug.

With regard to Tuesday's Morning Briefing, I agree with Mark Heisler (and thus perhaps disagree with Mike Piazza) that diversity of national origin is very good for baseball. However, the concept of internationalism cannot be said to extend to Puerto Rico, as Mr. Heisler implies. After all, Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory during the Spanish-American War and its residents have been U.S. citizens since 1917. MARK J. MORROW Valencia Randy Harvey commented on how Bill Veeck was attracted to characters [June 4]

Rio Grande Industries confirmed Friday that it is trying to buy 500 miles of railroad between Kansas City and Chicago from Soo Line Corp of Minneapolis. The track would give Rio Grande, parent of the Southern Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads, its first direct link to Chicago from the West Coast. Currently, the railroad must hand off goods to other lines, including Soo, in Kansas City. Rio Grande said it is optimistic it will be able to reach an agreement with Soo for the Kansas City-Chicago line, which passes through Missouri, Iowa and northern Illinois.

Chicago Milwaukee Corp. announced that it would appeal U.S. District Judge Thomas McMillen's final approval of the sale of Milwaukee Road's freight operations to Soo Line Railroad Co. McMillen gave Soo Line's $571-million offer preliminary approval on Feb. 8 even though it was $210 million less than one made by Chicago & North Western Transportation Co. McMillen said he approved the Soo Line offer because it would be more in the public interest.

A judge in Chicago approved the sale of the 3,100-mile bankrupt railroad to Soo Line, whose $570-million bid was the lower of two offers. U.S. District Judge Thomas McMillen said he based his opinion on what is best for the public interest, indicating that a sale to Chicago & North Western Transportation Co.--which bid $210 million more--would have reduced competition on many routes. Dan Murray, attorney for Chicago Milwaukee Corp., Milwaukee Road's parent company, said he planned to appeal.

The parents of an aspiring model who was strangled in Santa Monica in 2008 broke their long public silence Monday, making an unsuccessful plea to keep their daughter's alleged killer in jail. Police discovered Juliana Redding's body in her condo after Greg and Patricia Redding, of Arizona, informed them that they were concerned because their daughter had not been returning telephone calls. Two years after the slaying, Kelly Soo Park, 45, was arrested in connection with the killing.

This wasn't exactly what Dan Haren had in mind when the Angels acquired him for an expected playoff push. "Playing these games are going to be real meaningful," Haren told reporters in Arizona the day he was traded in late July. Six weeks later, the Angels' 3-2 loss against Cleveland on Monday at Angel Stadium had a spring training feel, with the crowd doing the wave in the top of the eighth inning after the Indians had moved the potential go-ahead run into scoring position.

Prosecutors have characterized the woman accused of killing an aspiring model in 2008 as a globetrotting fraud artist, flush with cash and capable of "taking care of business. " But recent defense filings paint a very different picture of Kelly Soo Park. They describe the 44-year-old as a law-abiding, local mortgage broker who cared for her ailing mother and regularly attended church services. Park is accused of strangling Juliana Redding in her Santa Monica condo. Redding, a 21-year-old Arizona native, had moved to Los Angeles to pursue work as a model and actress.

A judge has frozen the bank accounts of three people connected to a woman accused of murdering an aspiring model in 2008, an attorney said Tuesday. The disclosure came during a hearing in which Kelly Soo Park, 44, pleaded not guilty to killing 21-year-old Juliana Redding. According to court documents filed last month, prosecutors allege that weeks before Redding's death, Park had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a physician who was in a failed business deal with the victim's father.

The case against a woman charged with murdering an aspiring model in Santa Monica took an intriguing turn Friday, when prosecutors alleged that the suspect received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a troubled physician who was in a foundering business deal with the victim's father. Kelly Soo Park, 44, was paid $250,000 three weeks before the grisly 2008 killing of Juliana Redding and Park's family received another payment of $113,400 in the days before her arrest June 18, prosecutors said in a motion filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

A Camarillo woman was charged Monday in the slaying two years ago of an aspiring model who was found dead in her Santa Monica condo. L.A. County prosecutors formally charged Kelly Soo Park, 44, in the killing of 21-year-old Juliana Redding. Park's roommate, Ronnie Wayne Case, also was arrested by Santa Monica police detectives, but the district attorney's office declined Monday to charge the 34-year-old, pending further investigation. Authorities remained tightlipped about Park's connection to the slain model, or any potential motive, saying that detectives may still be tracking other suspects.

Soo Hoo M. Jue, a homemaker and former co-owner of Jue's Superette in Santa Paula, died Tuesday at home in Ventura surrounded by her family. She was 94. She was born Sept. 9, 1905, in Canton, China. She married Jake Jue when she was 19, and the family moved to the United States in 1937. The couple made Santa Paula their home and built Jue's Superette in 1956 for their family to run. She worked there until it closed in 1978.

A landslide rained boulders on visitors to one of Hawaii's most spectacular hiking spots, killing seven people--three of them from California--and injuring dozens, officials said Monday. Heat-seeking devices and military search dogs did not find any more bodies Monday beneath tons of rubble at Sacred Falls State Park on the island of Oahu. Rescuers had to dodge falling debris as they searched. "We're pretty much certain there are no more dead bodies under the landslide," said Honolulu Fire Capt.

South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo's "Night and Day" will have its Los Angeles premiere Saturday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Shot on location in Paris, the comedy revolves around a married Korean painter living in exile in the City of Light. Hong will participate in a Q&A after the screening. Other Hong films will be screening at LACMA this weekend: "Turning Gate" and "Tale of Cinema" are scheduled for Friday, and "The Power of Kangwon Province" screens Saturday before "Night and Day."

Shin-Soo Choo homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs to lead the Cleveland Indians to a 15-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night, ending their five-game losing streak. Choo had an RBI single, two-run double, three-run homer and a solo home run, his 12th. It was Choo's second career multihomer game and the most RBIs by a Cleveland player since Grady Sizemore drove in seven Aug. 21 against Kansas City.