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Jieun Choi
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Only High School Using Park Geun-hye’s History Textbook Faces Rough Year

This year’s opening ceremony at Munmyeong High School in North Gyeongsang Province was cancelled. The chairs in the hall are left empty, as students and parents protested against the school’s decision to adopt a state-issued history textbook. (Source: JTBC) The only high school in South Korea to adopt

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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"A Day Without Women" on the Streets of South Korea

Today was International Women’s Day, and South Korean women took this celebration to another level. Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA) held a “Day Without Women” march in downtown Seoul and other cities nationwide, calling out for women to fight against the gender wage gap.

Se-Woong Koo
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Who is Kim Han-sol?

He looks like an ordinary young man, dressed in a nondescript black pullover. He is calm and composed while talking. He even takes a moment to thank people. This 40-second videoclip, uploaded to Youtube on Mar. 7, is making waves in South Korea and around the world. The young man

ké radar
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Another Dolphin Death In South Korea's Aquariums

On its website, Geoje Sea World, an aquarium and marine theme park, describes itself as “second to none in Korea,” a place “expressly designed for cultivating interactive and mutual relationships between human-beings and marine mammals.” Geoje Sea World offers a variety of programs that allow people to swim in pools

Se-Woong Koo
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South Korean Men Busted and Shamed for Buying Sex in the Philippines

An 2013 essay in Weekly Donga, a current affairs magazine, is frank about why South Korean men go play golf in Southeast Asia: “The reason a wife is not happy about her husband leaving for Southeast Asia is because everything is done according to the rule.

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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Battle of the Nudes: Political Satire Targets Lawmaker and His Wife

Editor’s note: This post contains nudity and may offend some readers. Passersby outside South Korea’s National Assembly today were greeted by an unusually colorful banner: Four clumsily photoshopped images portrayed the faces of the opposition Minjoo Party lawmaker Pyo Chang-won and his wife pasted onto various

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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Former Spy Claims NIS Spied on Constitutional Court

An unnamed former agent claimed that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) secretly interviewed officials from the Constitutional Court, reported the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS). These claims come as the Constitutional Court prepares to deliver its final verdict on Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, most likely

Jieun Choi
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Pro-Japanese Roots Haunt South Korean Actor Kang Dong-won

Popular South Korean actor Kang Dong-won is under fire for an ancestor he has never met, about whom he talked about in passing in an interview ten years ago.  In a 2007 interview with Chosun Ilbo, Kang boasted that his maternal great-grandfather, Lee Jong-man, had been a

Haeryun Kang
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Special Probe Wraps Up 90 Days of Scandal and Fatigue

After a tumultuous 90 days, the final press conference was short. Just fifteen minutes, no questions accepted.  It's the biggest corruption scandal of the nation, and they hold a fifteen-minute briefing with no Q&A? #수사결과발표 #특검 #국정농단 — Jihye Lee 이지혜 (@TheJihyeLee) March 6,

Jieun Choi
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China’s THAAD Revenge List

K-pop, Jeju Island, and Lotte candy — what do they all have in common? They’re all subject to China’s economic retaliation against South Korea over the decision to install Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a U.S-made missile defense system. Tensions keep rising, ranging from a recent

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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All That THAAD: South Korea Rattled By China Tourism Curb

Last July, South Korea announced the decision to deploy THAAD, a U.S-produced missile defense system. Since then, the Chinese government has retaliated with a number of subtle and explicit measures, including denying South Korean entertainers access to its lucrative market. Its latest pushback appears to be discouraging Chinese citizens

Se-Woong Koo
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Living Cheap in South Korea

Between all the designer handbags and luxury cars in the streets of Seoul, it’s easy to think that South Koreans love and are willing to pay for bling. But echoing what Japan has gone through after their economic bubble burst twenty years ago, South Korea wrestles with worsening