“Nobody Likes It”: The Price of Researching North Korean Human Rights
This is probably not the best moment to talk about North Korean human rights, now that even Trump-related news has been getting competition: South Koreans have emphatically confirmed their own...
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A Candlelight Effect: Kim Jong-un Bows to His People
This concern [to improve the lives of the citizens] was in my heart, but I lacked the ability to see these dreams to fruition and spent the last year in regret and guilt. If I ask you to guess who the...
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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...
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What “Progressive” Means in South Korea
Stop the Communists! Save democracy from North Korea! These chants, as outdated and irrelevant as they may sound, still reverberate around the streets of South Korea in the 21st century. They come...
View ArticleColossal Mystery of Lotte World Tower Ad
Lotte Group, one of South Korea’s biggest chaebol (family-run conglomerates), raised eyebrows with a full-page advertisement on page five of The New York Times’s international edition on Monday....
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Prospect of War Prompts Mixed Reactions in South Korea
American missiles rained down on Syria Friday, ostensibly to punish the Damascus-based government for using chemical weapons against its own people. For South Koreans watching the news, the plight of...
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Internet Users in S Korea: Beware of Ransomware
Ransomware, an international cyber-attack that started last Friday, hit South Korea over the weekend. Moviegoers in CJ CGV, the country’s biggest multiplex cinema chain, reported seeing screens...
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Call Me Maybe: How N. and S. Korea Actually Communicate
The new Moon Jae-in administration wants to reopen communication channels with North Korea. The two Koreas haven’t talked on the phone for over fifteen months. But back when they did, at least two...
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Neungra Bapsang: North Koreans in the South Gain Self-Sufficiency through Food
North Korean defector Lee Ae-ran introduces South Koreans to the food of the North. With her restaurant Neungra Bapsang, she also helps other female defectors make a living. Dressed simply with short...
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Who Are the Agencies Behind North Korea Tourism?
When hundreds of foreign journalists visited Pyongyang in April to cover North Korea’s latest military parade, Otto Warmbier had already been in a coma for about a year. And nobody knew. Earlier this...
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Ppira: Women’s Bodies as Bait in Propaganda War Between Two Koreas
A woman with curled up hair and enamel white pumps flashes her legs in an archetypal Marilyn Monroe posture — wind blows from below, ballooning up her flowing dress, which she pushes down just before...
View ArticleWhat Will Happen to Kaesong Industrial Complex?
On Jul. 3, South Korea got itself a new unification minister, a man known for promoting economic engagement with North Korea. The appointment comes against the backdrop of conservative president Park...
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Alpabet or Alphabet? The Case for a New Hangeul
“I heard from the horse’s mouth it’s the most scientific alphabet in the world,” I once overheard a South Korean student say as he showed a Westerner a display on Hangeul, Korea’s indigenous alphabet,...
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Haeryun Kang: On N. Korea in the Guardian
“In South Korea we’re scared but we’ve normalised the fear,” published on the Guardian on Aug. 9, 2017. Are S. Koreans indifferent to N. Korean provocations? When North Korea news gets hot, like now,...
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Haeryun Kang: On S. Korean “indifference” to N. Korea in Vox
Last week, managing editor Haeryun Kang talked to the Guardian about the complexity behind S. Koreans’ indifference toward N. Korean threats. Read her in-depth interview with Vox, with detailed...
View ArticleInside the North Korean Military: The Plight of Women
Just over 10 years ago, North Korean defector Lee Da-eun would not have imagined munching on fried chicken topped with gooey cheese, at a faux-military restaurant surrounded by ammunition and gas...
View ArticleYoung S. Korean Speaks: “What the Fuck is North Korea’s Problem?”
On the eve of the 69th anniversary of North Korea, outsiders are watching for any sign of threats from Pyongyang. Many are asking what young South Koreans think about these threats. We bring to you...
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North Korea: Brother, Enemy, Not My Problem
Everybody in South Korea knows the song “Our Dream is Unification.” I sang it in elementary school. I watched as Kim Jong-il and then South Korean president Kim Dae-jung sang it in Pyongyang at the...
View ArticleIf a Nuclear Bomb Falls on Seoul, Where Do You Cook Pork Belly?
“If a nuclear bomb falls on Seoul, where do you cook pork belly?” How are South Koreans talking about North Korea’s nuclear threats? This is another question we get asked very often. Here’s a rather...
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The Few, The Quirky: S. Korea’s War Preppers
Seated at a downtown coffee shop dressed in business casual, Woo Seung-yep looked more like an office worker than a war prepper as he calmly explained how he became the best-known South Korean engaged...
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