Chocolate Dessert Sends Netizens into Meltdown
Everyone likes a surprise. And when you’re a leading celebrity gourmet charged with designing a special dessert for a VIP Olympic reception, you want your surprise to be a good one. Unfortunately for well-known South Korean food critic Hwang Kyo-ik, somebody blew his surprise to the media a
Solar Agriculture: South Korea's New Farming Revolution?
Farmer Kim Hong-tae stands and looks out over his field, glinting in the winter sunlight. With the first signs of spring still a month away, Kim’s crops are already ripe for harvest. In fact, they always are, as long as there’s sunlight. Kim, 61, is a solar farmer,
Do I Need to Wear a Face Mask in South Korea?
Walk along the street in any South Korean city and you’ll see plenty of people wearing surgical-style face masks. Covering the nose and mouth and held in place by elastic loops that reach back behind the ears, the masks are cheap and sold in almost all convenience stores and
Karma Back! Buddhist Ad Campaign Tries to Reverse Falling Numbers
Radiant smiles invite potential novices into a life of monasticism. “Joining the clergy: the most brilliant choice of my life,” reads the slogan above the good-looking young monk and nun. Welcome to Buddhist recruitment, 21st century style. Released last November by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, South Korea’s
Foreigners Rail at Korail's Two-track Olympic Booking Discrimination
With just a month to go until the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics open on Feb. 9, another issue is getting foreign visitors worked up. This time, it’s ticket bookings for the new KTX (high speed rail) line that connects Incheon International Airport, Seoul and key new stations in the Olympic
The Myth of S. Korea’s World-beating Nuclear Energy Exports
“Mommy, can I go and play by the nuclear power station?” — The above promotional image is from the website of KEPCO, South Korea’s largest energy provider. This autumn, South Korean media and netizens were busy arguing out the pros and cons of building new
Plane Madness? Second Airport Plan Angers Jeju Islanders
On Tuesday morning, the wind blew tufts of black hair across freezing paving stones by the Blue House. Giant fiberglass Pyeongchang Olympic mascots — a white tiger and an Asiatic black bear — looked on as five electric razors hummed across five scalps. Villagers from Seongsan, a quiet county on
South Koreans Ready to Discard Disposable Cup Culture
Sit down with a coffee at almost any café in South Korea and you’ll be surrounded by people drinking from disposable takeout cups. Walk in any public place during the morning rush or after lunch and you’ll notice every public garbage bin overflowing with plastic cups. In cafés,
Pretty and Polluted: Jeju Overfilling With Tourists
2011 was a busy year for the civil servants of Jeju Island. South Korea’s most famous island — bar Dokdo — had made the shortlist for the so-called “new seven wonders of nature.” With no restrictions on the number of telephone votes cast by each individual, Jeju’s public
UNESCO Declares South Korea World Heritage Site
Disclaimer: Don’t take this seriously. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Tuesday an unprecedented decision to inscribe the Republic of Korea onto the World Heritage List. The unexpected move marks the first time an entire country has been designated a World Heritage site,
A Complex Issue: The Apart-ization of South Korea
Itaewon has a reputation as Seoul’s ‘foreign’ area. Standing next to U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, it has long catered to the off-base needs and urges of military personnel, gaining a sleazy reputation in the process. Many South Koreans were afraid to set foot there until a few years
CCPI 2018: South Korea's Climate Change Response Sucks
South Korea has been ranked 58th out of 60 countries worldwide in Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2018, an instrument that assesses action taken on climate protection. The index, compiled by European NGO Germanwatch, aggregates performance in terms of 14 indicators within four categories: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy