journalism

Jihyun Kim
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North Korea Reporting: Riddled With Errors, Even in Neighboring South Korea

It was a riveting story. On Aug 29, 2013, South Korea’s biggest newspaper Chosun Ilbo ran what it claimed was an exclusive: Hyon Song-wol, a singer and rumored ex-lover of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, had been executed for starring in and selling pornographic videos. That report went viral,

Gyoon Heo
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Why I Decline 'North Korean Defector' Interview Requests

Over the past few years, journalists from all sorts of global media have contacted me to get my ‘defector point of view’ on all things North Korean. And the current inter-Korean drama has been yet another occasion. A famous European TV station crew, flying to South Korea for the Apr.

Jieun Choi
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Meet North Korea’s Former Elite Journalist

Kim Gil-sun is an ex-journalist from Pyongyang. She worked for 17 years at the publishing arm of the Academy of National Defense Science, which is in charge of its missile program. For nearly two decades before defecting in the late 1990s, Kim had close contact with the confidential sectors within

Steven Borowiec
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This Foul-Mouthed 20-Year-Old is Changing South Korea's Millennial Media

Guk Beom-geun has a message for you, and he’s happy to phrase it in the bluntest possible terms. In a video, while digging in to a bowl of spicy ramen, he addressed the question on everyone’s lips, “What the Fuck is North Korea’s Problem?” “North Korea’s

Haeryun Kang
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We Need to Talk About Suicide Reporting

How do we find the optimal balance between our right to information, and the risks inherent in broad dissemination of sensitive information? Around 24 hours have passed since 27-year-old Jonghyun, a member of the popular K-pop group SHINee, took his own life. It’s already a huge story, both within

Steven Borowiec
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Nameless and Faceless

Last year, students at Pusan National University treated campus cleaning and security staff to a meal and some live music, in an event titled “We’re happy because of your effort.” Local newspaper Busan Ilbo was on the scene, and quoted someone from the university as saying, “We hope the

Haeryun Kang
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Not Even Kim Jong-un Can Stop KBS, MBC Strikes

On the day North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sep. 3, two of South Korea’s biggest public broadcasters didn’t have enough reporters to thoroughly cover the breaking story. Many of them were on strike. “We beseech the employees and the labor unions leading the strike to

Se-Woong Koo
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KÉ Interview: Building an App to Engage Young People in Politics

Many young South Koreans have taken to calling their country “Hell Joseon” because they see no hope in it. The job market is getting exceedingly competitive, and corporate culture, not to mention social relations in general, is rigidly hierarchical. But South Korea is also becoming known for its thriving start-up

KOREA EXPOSÉ
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Be KÉ:connected!

  In a city so big, with so many people, it’s ironic that meeting others and having interesting conversations are harder to come by. Be KÉ:connected, a networking event organized by journalists at Korea Exposé.    Here are some people you’ll be meeting: “

Se-Woong Koo
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In Rumor We Trust: Proliferating Fake News in South Korea

South Koreans are used to hearing sentences that end in hadeora, a verb meaning “it is said that….” This particular way of phrasing is something of a cop-out, though. It conveys information without taking ownership of the fact. And given that Korean verbs do not require a subject, it is

Haeryun Kang
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Journalism Without Journalists: Political Interference Cripples Public Broadcasting

President Park Geun-hye’s scandal is often seen as a triumph of South Korean journalism. Not just for the dogged investigations by countless journalists, but because typically partisan newspapers on different sides of the political spectrum, like Hankyoreh and Chosun Ilbo, all reported persistently and critically on the same

Se-Woong Koo
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Ethics Be Damned: South Korean Journalism Fails

I am from South Korea, but I make it a point not to write or speak in Korean about this country. That my Korean language skills have ossified from disuse is only one reason; it is more that my brushes with South Korean media are rarely uplifting. A case in