Daniel Dae Kim explores booming South Korean pop, film, cosmetics and food influences for CNN series

NEW YORK (AP) — Not too long ago, Daniel Dae Kim had an unusual encounter with a salmon. It had nothing to do with dinner.

The actor, director and producer lay down in a doctor's office in Seoul and underwent microinjections into his face of DNA from salmon sperm. The hope was to reduce inflammation and improve elasticity.

“I look like a got a little sunburn and a little redder than usual, but it’s not bad,” he says to a camera crew after the procedure. “OK, I’m camera ready.”

Kim was putting his face on the line as part of the new CNN series “K-Everything: The Global Rise of Korean Culture,” his love letter to K-beauty, K-pop, K-food and K-film. It debuts Saturday on CNN International and is also available on CNN and HBO Max.

“It's an examination of how Korea has risen in the course of three short generations from a war-torn third world country to one of the most modern places in the world,” Kim says in an interview. “We’ll take a look at how that’s happened through food, through cinema, through beauty products and through music.”

At a vibrant kimchi festival in Pyeongchang, Kim explores how K-food is reshaping fine dining across the globe. In other episodes, he meets actor Lee Byung-hun, “Gangnam Style” singer-songwriter Psy, BigBang's Taeyang and the songwriters behind the Oscar-winning song “Golden.”

“For those who’ve never been to Korea, this is a nice introduction in a way that is not something taught in a classroom or in a textbook,” Kim says.

In the beauty episode, Kim chats with makeup artist and influencer LeoJ and model Irene Kim on how beauty standards have changed. He tries various serums and face masks and even visits a factory where snail slime is collected to be used in various products.

“I got to meet people from different walks of life, from different cities, from different economic classes, and it just broadened my understanding of the culture,” he says.

Kim was born in South Korea but moved to the United States when he was 1, returning frequently. That makes “K-Everything” a personal journey, which also includes his parents.

Seoul has undergone such an economic and cultural boom that all the landmarks his parents knew from when they were teenagers were gone and they relied on him to navigate. “It was almost a foreign country to them,” he says.

Kim joins a crowded field of celeb travel hosts, which includes Tony Shalhoub, Rainn Wilson, Eugene Levy, Stanley Tucci,Orlando Bloom, Zac Efron, José Andrés, Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith, Eva Longoria and Ewan McGregor.

Kim, the “Lost” star who recently earned a Tony Award nomination, is a fan of the late chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who helped create the role of modern TV travel host.

“I wouldn’t say that this show is as irreverent as Anthony Bourdain’s show was, but I loved it because I felt like he was showing me his take on each country and he was a trusted guide,” he says. “If I can be that for some people then that’s the spirit that I’d like to bring into this show.”

Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent, CNN Originals and creative development, says Kim brings a unique and deeply personal perspective to the series.

“From the first time I met him, it was clear he was incredibly well equipped to tackle this — deeply passionate about the subject and highly knowledgeable. He was also very focused on making sure the way we look at Korean culture translates to a broad global audience, really putting a spotlight on it,” she says.

Kim has never played TV host, but he's an avid traveler and he's not a fish out of water in Korea. He says despite stretching himself, he felt comfortable.

“I get to introduce the world to a culture that I love and have gotten to know and has informed who I am as a performer and as a human being. So to me, it was strangely comfortable and it didn’t feel at all like I was stepping outside of my comfort zone.”

Kim hopes the series can help non-Koreans better understand a culture that has influenced so much of the globe of late and address anti-Asian racism, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If we can start to understand one another a little bit better through culture, then I think it is one step toward bringing together a global community. And I think the world could use a little more understanding in general.”

FILE - Daniel Dae Kim poses for a portrait during Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - Daniel Dae Kim poses for a portrait during Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A man accused of a firebomb attack that killed one person and injured a dozen others while they were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the pleas Thursday in Boulder County District Court. He now faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the attack in downtown Boulder last June 1.

Soliman’s attorneys revealed he would plead guilty in a Sunday court filing in a related federal case. Soliman has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.

Soliman initially pleaded not guilty in state court to murder and dozens of attempted murder and assault charges for throwing two Molotov cocktails at demonstrators at a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, a city of 100,000 people northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado.

An 82-year-old woman who was injured in the attack later died. A dozen others were also injured.

Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally. Investigators allege he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”

Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer said the victims included some of her close friends.

“It was a horrific attack,” Winer said by email this week. “Their lives were changed forever.”

Soliman’s federal attorneys have said in court filings the attack “was profoundly inconsistent” with Soliman’s prior conduct and “came as a total shock to his family.”

Soliman had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs — about 97 miles (156 kilometers) away — at the time of the attack. He had moved to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 with his wife and their five children and worked in a series of low-paying jobs.

The couple divorced in April.

Investigators allege Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration at Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. He threw two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!”

Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.

Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. Soliman’s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.

An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen were physically injured. The others were nearby and considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, and Soliman has been charged with animal cruelty.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April.

An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the U.S. and issued a deportation order. But U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.

Soliman’s attorneys seek to block the family’s deportation until a judge determines they won’t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.

FILE - Law enforcement officials investigate after an attack on the Pearl Street Mall, June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)

FILE - Bouquets of flowers stand along a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County courthouse on June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)