Hangeul Day draws 15,000 to Sejong for symbolic run and festivities

SEJONG -- On Thursday, the streets and parks of Sejong City filled with runners, festivalgoers and cultural performers as more than 15,000 people took part in the 2025 Hangeul Run, an event commemorating the creation of the Korean writing system. Now in its second year as a major civic festival, Hangeul Run has become the centerpiece of Korea’s Hangeul Day celebrations. The event was co-organized by Sejong City, the Sejong Culture and Tourism Foundation, the National Hangeul Museum, and Herald M

Oct. 10, 2025

Will people travel 3 hours from Seoul for gimbap? Gimcheon is worried too many might

Gimbap (also spelled kimbap) is everywhere in Korea. You can find it sliced or unsliced, vegan or spicy, packed fresh or frozen, all for as little as a couple bucks. Every convenience store has it and every city eats it. So would it really make sense for anyone to travel over three hours from Seoul to a random city just to eat it? Tens of thousands already did last year. Now, with the second Gimcheon Gimbap Festival set to return on Oct. 25 and 26, and gimbap riding a wave of global pop cultural

Oct. 8, 2025

This district office offers more than paperwork. It has giant slides

There is a district office in Seoul where bursts of excitement, often audible as screams, echo throughout the building. The source of the thrill? A set of giant slides that whisk visitors from the second floor down to the basement in under 7 seconds. Installed and opened to the public in early September, Dongjak District Office’s “D-Lide” has drawn crowds lining up like at an amusement park. It’s not just children enjoying the ride -- office workers from outside the district are joining in the f

Oct. 8, 2025

'Easier than friendship': Gen Z turns to ChatGPT for emotional support

"Therapy-style” prompts for ChatGPT have recently gone viral. Across platforms like X and TikTok, users are sharing custom prompts that instruct the chatbot to act as a professional counselor, interpreting the user’s emotions and offering warm, empathetic responses. “One of the best things about venting to ChatGPT is that it never gets tired of me,” said Kim Ji-hyun, 24. “My closest friend once told me to stop bringing up the same problem with my boyfriend, but ChatGPT will keep answering me, ev

Oct. 6, 2025

True Crime (4) The forgotten killer: Kim Dae-doo

Why do some killers capture more attention than others? In South Korea's relatively short list of serial killers, there are infamous figures whose crimes have inspired acclaimed films such as the 2003 film "Memories of Murder" and 2008's "The Chaser." However, the man featured in this episode doesn't quite fit that mold. Despite his staggering murder count and the brutal nature of his killings, he remains largely forgotten among South Koreans today. In fact, he has never gained the same level of

Oct. 1, 2025

[Life in Korea] Double life of Anthony King: dancer and director in Seoul

Anthony King, 33, is a US-born filmmaker and professional dancer based in Korea, but his trajectory began far from studio lights: middle-school sports, anime music videos and an obsession over the arcade rhythm game, Dance Dance Revolution. A friend’s demonstration of a break dancing move called the “turtle stall” lit the fuse. “He showed me that, and I thought it was the most impressive thing in the world,” King said. Little did he know this would be the beginning of a chapter that would take h

Sept. 22, 2025

Why Koreans keep buying books they admit are shallow

When "I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki" appeared in 2018, it opened up something rare in Korean publishing. Part memoir, part therapeutic dialogue, the book was grounded in the author’s experience of clinical depression. Classified as a “Korean Essay” by local bookstores, it stood out because it offered a vulnerable personal narrative. Seven years on, the same category looks very different. Bookstores across South Korea showcase row after row of pastel-colored volumes repeating variati

Sept. 22, 2025

Tying the knot in Korea: paperwork and visas

A growing number of South Koreans are getting married with people of various countries. Each year, around 20,000 international marriages occur throughout the country — 20,759 in 2024 — and this article aims to provide guidelines about issues one should be mindful in a wedding that involves two people of different nationalities. Those with foreign roots can also reach out to the government for assistance through various programs to adjust to the life in Korea, namely on the obvious language barri

Sept. 20, 2025

'Keep it on': Shirtless joggers are frowned upon in Korea, but some push back

At Seoul’s Yeouido Hangang Park, the mecca for the city's running crews, four new taboos are shifting the vibe of the jogging trail. A banner, posted along the walkway, outlines the four guidelines which prohibit: 1) shirtless running, 2) clapping or cheering, 3) running in large groups and 4) shouting “make way” at other pedestrians. It also features messages urging group joggers to be mindful of others, with messages like “Run safely in two lines” and “This park is for everyone.” The banner co

Sept. 18, 2025

Why Perplexity built a low-key coffee shop in Seoul’s most upscale district

There's almost nothing about Cafe Curious that suggests it was created by a Silicon Valley AI startup. Located in Cheongdam-dong, one of Seoul’s most upscale neighborhoods, the space opened on Sept. 3. From the outside, it looks like just another sleek coffee shop with glass doors, dark stone walls and a small sidewalk sign. The name Curious appears modestly on the corner of the building. But this is not a typical cafe. It's the first physical location operated by Perplexity, the generative AI c

Sept. 16, 2025

Meet the Baby Hiking Club

With a crisp breeze heralding the arrival of fall, nine tiny adventurers, most of them just 1 year old, set out on their very first hike of the season. Dangling from inside hiking carriers with rattles, little toys and teething rings, the babies cooed and gurgled as they gazed wide-eyed at the sky, the canopy of trees and fluttering birds — all over their parents’ shoulders. The parents echoed back and sang little songs, filling the tranquil trail on Buramsan in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, wit

Sept. 11, 2025

Books and beats: The strange comfort of reading alongside strangers

Walking down to the basement of a building in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong, the hallway hummed with the pulse of bass beats and the warm, low-toned sound of a synthesizer. A strip of red light spilled from behind the curtain, and as it was pulled open, the music swelled and the room glowed crimson, filled with the scent of woody perfume. The space looked ready for a late-night party, but the atmosphere was more sedate: Reading City is an experiment in combining the trend for silent reading clubs with mu

Sept. 10, 2025

This is the AI chatbot captivating 1 million Korean teens. They script tempting intimacy

The most heavily used AI chatbot app in South Korea by daily engagement time is not ChatGPT. Nor is it made by a Silicon Valley tech giant. It's a homegrown app called Zeta, an anime-styled roleplay app where nearly one million mostly teenage users spend an average of 2 hours and 46 minutes a day talking and flirting with virtual characters. That figure even surpasses entertainment platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, according to Mobile Index data from June. Though Zeta is officially r

Sept. 10, 2025

Diapers in Dior: Luxury fever seeps into parenthood

Picture this. You finally step out with your brand-new Dior tote and later discover baby milk leaking from a baby bottle inside. A nightmare scenario? Perhaps. But for some Korean mothers, it’s not a big deal, since they bought the bag to carry baby bottles in the first place. In South Korea, the world’s leading luxury market, oversized luxury totes have taken on an unexpected role as “diaper bags,” stuffed with diapers, milk, baby food and other baby essentials. A quick search for “diaper bag”

Sept. 7, 2025

Korea's once-condemned workplace talent shows now romanticized by some desperate job seekers

Wearing a glittering stage outfit, a woman jumps high, swings her arms, and shouts to the camera, “Start!” On her cue, hundreds of people in dozens of rows raise their cards together, kicking off a giant mass game that first forms a red running figure, then spells out the word “goal” in English. The assembled crowd also moves in perfect sync, forming a giant star. The giant cheering squad in the video wasn't made up of professional performers but of new hires who joined Samsung Electronics in 20

Aug. 30, 2025