MOMOFUKU KO, David Chang’s intimate 12-seat, sushi-counter-style restaurant heads this list not only because its best dishes and moments are so memorable, but because it’s a paradigm-busting experiment that, like so much of what Mr. Chang has done, heeds and adjusts for what a new generation of discerning diners cares most about — and what fuss and frippery they can do without.  Read>

The event is one of the top junior international tennis tournaments in the country and, although its competitors are no more than 14 years old, winning it is a big step in the aspirations of getting to the next level of the sport.  During the girls’ match earlier that day, So Ra Lee — a 14-year-old from Seoul, South Korea — easily got past Bradenton 13-year-old Victoria Duval — ranked No. 4 by the United States Tennis Association for girls’ 14-and-under — 7-5, 6-3.  Read>

Kyung Yoon has a knack for being in the right place at the right moment.

Like in 1990, when African-American community leaders called for a boycott of Korean green grocers in Flatbush, Brooklyn, after a Haitian woman claimed she had been beaten and wrongly accused of shoplifting.

Yoon, the daughter of Korean diplomats who grew up in Washington and Paris, suddenly found herself the only Korean reporter covering the story for local television.

“I was able to go to town with this story,” said Yoon, then a reporter for WNYW television.  Read>

Minha Lee is a correspondant for the Youth Journalism International.  Read about her trip to Korea.

The number of unemployed Asian Americans, including Korean Americans, has shown a rapid increase in the last months.  Read>

Can’t we give a little love to a guy who makes 100x his base salary.  He made more money in one year than a normal lottery day prize.  Unfortunately for him, he’s become the face of greed and poor mismanagement of funds on Wall Street.  At least he’s not Bernie Madoff which would be considered pure evil.

For Dow Kim, 2006 was a very good year. While his salary at Merrill Lynch was $350,000, his total compensation was 100 times that — $35 million.

The difference between the two amounts was his bonus, a rich reward for the robust earnings made by the traders he oversaw in Merrill’s mortgage business.

Mr. Kim’s colleagues, not only at his level, but far down the ranks, also pocketed large paychecks. In all, Merrill handed out $5 billion to $6 billion in bonuses that year. A 20-something analyst with a base salary of $130,000 collected a bonus of $250,000. And a 30-something trader with a $180,000 salary got $5 million.

Dow Kim stepped into this milieu in the mid-1980s, fresh from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Seoul and raised there and in Singapore, Mr. Kim moved to the United States at 16 to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. A quiet workaholic in an industry of workaholics, he seemed to rise through the ranks by sheer will. After a stint trading bonds in Tokyo, he moved to New York to oversee Merrill’s fixed-income business in 2001. Two years later, he became co-president.  Read>

Looks like a whole lot of Korean men are looking for love outside the border.

Eight out of 100 Korean males married foreign women last year, according to data from the Korea National Statistics Office. In rural areas, up to 40 percent of marriages involved an international bride.  “It’ll always be a given that foreign brides are a substitute for Korean wives in these marriages,” admits Kang Seong-Euy, secretary-general of the Women Migrants Human Rights Center in Korea, a watchdog for migrant women.

“But slowly more men are starting to think outside their culture and embracing their differences from their partners. For example, a lot of them are considering migrating to their wife’s country and settling down there after they retire.

Five years ago, this was unthinkable.”  Read>

Michelle Rhee isn’t the first Korean on the cover of Time Magazine – unfortunately I believe it’s Kim Jong-Il – but at the young age of 39, she’s making a name for herself by becoming a good lightening rod for the most important demographic: children.  Can Michelle Rhee – Chancellor of Education, Washington, D.C. – change the old paradigm of education?

Rhee took over Anacostia High and the district’s 143 other schools in June 2007, when Mayor Adrian Fenty named her chancellor. Her appointment stunned the city. Rhee, then 37, had no experience running a school, let alone a district with 46,000 students that ranks last in math among 11 urban school systems. When Fenty called her, she was running a nonprofit called the New Teacher Project, which helps schools recruit good teachers. Most problematic of all, Rhee is not from Washington. She is from Ohio, and she is Korean American in a majority-African-American city. “I was,” she says now, “the worst pick on the face of the earth.” Read more>

Amy Yang, 19, Seoul, South Korea. Won the 2006 ANZ Ladies Masters, a Ladies European Tour event in Australia, at the age of 16 years, nine months and 18 days, the youngest ever LET winner. Gained LET membership because of that in and grabbed another title this year in Germany. Donated the 37,500 euros she won to aid earthquake victims in China. Shot a 67 in the fourth round of LPGA school when she putted for birdie on every hole.

Michelle Wie, 19, Honolulu, Hawaii. The 19-year-old Stanford student says she will return to college for the winter quarter then take time off to focus on golf when the term ends in late March. More than three years after turning pro in October, 2005 and after trying to take on the men, she finally decided to pursue an LPGA card, getting it on her first try.

Jeehae Lee, 25, Seoul, South Korea. A 2006 graduate of Yale where she studied economics. Has missed 10 of 25 cuts on the Duramed Futures Tour over the last two seasons. Studies at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy.

Jeanne Cho-Hunicke, 26, Suresnes, France. Speaks, French, Spanish, English and Korean. A 2003 grad of the University of Florida where she majored in quantitative sciences. Was a contestant on The Big Break on Golf Channel in 2005. Played nine LPGA events this year and missed the cut in eight of them, managing to match par in only one of 19 rounds.