South Korea
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Korea's "First Room Salon"
Lecturer Seol Min-suk is one of South Korea’s biggest celebrity historians. He is entertaining, colorful and descriptive, and makes history fun. Recently, he put himself on the chopping board with a highly controversial comment about some of the most revered men in Korean history. It had to do with
THAAD Will Not Protect South Korea
Elderly women held up signs reading “Illegal THAAD, back to the U.S!” as they marched, leaning on walking frames for support. Soseong-ri, their small village in South Korea, has become the center of a fight that could lay the groundwork for U.
Plant Shutdown Puts Nuclear Industry Back in Spotlight
By 2020, South Korea will be home to the largest cluster of nuclear reactors in the world, just a short drive away from Busan. But in a country where fears about Japanese seafood still linger after the Fukushima disaster of 2011, the booming nuclear industry — which produces roughly 30
Misfortunes of South Korean Security Guards
A few years ago, I saw a notice up in the elevator of my apartment in Seoul. It was about replacing security guards — at least fifty in all seven buildings of the compound — with machines. The resident representative announced that a “new security system” would curtail management expenses.
The Babariums of Jeolla
I’d seen them before on South Korean films from a couple of decades ago: giant baby rooms, filled with row upon row of newborns watched through the glass by curious parents. “Isn’t that one ours?” They’d point. “Number 47?” “No, it’s number
A Jewish Learning Method Catches on in South Korean Hagwons
South Korea’s obsession with education is well-known. The size of the private education market amounted to 18 trillion won (over 16 billion U.S. dollars) last year. The market is so big that for years, the government has been trying to regulate hagwons — private cram schools — but
Battle's Not Over for Samsung Leukemia Victims
Earlier this month, a group of activists sued the Ministry of Employment and Labor for information they hoped might explain the deaths of people who worked in Samsung semiconductor and LCD factories, the latest phase in a legal battle that goes back a decade. On Thursday, Suwon District Court handed
The Uni Student that Goes to Court Four Times a Month
When I connected with Kim Sam on the phone, she sounded just like one of my friends answering a call from a stranger: polite but cautious, a little unsure. Kim’s nonchalant personality in our conversation and online videos belies the doggedness of her activism, which has led to her
Ikseon-dong: Seoul's Hottest Poverty Porn Destination
If you plug Ikseon-dong, the name of a central Seoul neighborhood, into your preferred search engine, you’ll come up with countless photographs, many of which look the same: shabby low-rise buildings with wooden doors along narrow alleyways. One recurring image is Ikseon-dong shot from above, contextualizing it as a
How Netflix Disappointed South Korean Users
Starring in SNL Korea and numerous other TV shows, comedian Yoo Se-yoon is a familiar figure in South Korea. So when Netflix Korea, struggling since its launch in 2016, chose Yoo to promote their latest original series, they thought it would attract attention. “Yoo Se-yoon is throwing in his
With the Sewol's Salvage, Closure May Be Near
Between two floating platforms emerges the rusty hull of a sunken ship. The sight is startling. The Sewol capsized nearly three years ago, on Apr. 16, 2014, killing 304 people. Since then, there has been much talk of the vessel being raised, but little action. To see the physical form
For Better or Worse, All Roads Lead to Namuwiki in South Korea, Not Wikipedia
“All roads lead to Namuwiki,” a popular saying goes. Type any search term into Google Korea. Chances are, you’ll be taken to Namuwiki, not Wikipedia. Namuwiki is South Korea’s indigenous open-source encyclopedia, which started out as a half-baked collection of pages deep in the bowels of Korean cyberspace.