Fast Five Tower News Today

Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, will give a lecture for the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea on Tuesday on the history of North Korean labor in Russia, Lankovs home country, and the changes in the way North Koreans have been employed there.

Not long ago, I was invited to visit the Ureuk World Music House in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, on a sunny autumn afternoon in rural Korea where local mountains, rice paddy fields and scattered houses have coexisted for centuries. The Music House is dedicated to Master Ureuk, a renowned musician from the sixth century said to be the founder of Korean music, who was exiled to Chungju where he created the gayageum, a Korean 12-string instrument.

Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea invites the British ambassador to give a talk right after the Lunar New Year long weekend. As British ambassador to Korea, Colin Crooks also holds the title of honorary president of RAS Korea, the worlds oldest Korean studies organization founded in 1900.