Seoul's ritzy southern neighborhood of Daechi-dong is the hub of Korea's private education, where hundreds of private cram schools cater to students vying to enter the country’s prominent universities. On April 3, an appalling scam targeting unsuspecting students on the streets of this neighborhood sent shockwaves across the nation. Over 100 bottles of drinks laced with methamphetamines and ecstasy were distributed, falsely marketed as study aids to enhance concentration and me

Hashtag Korea May 2, 2023

A 3.1 magnitude natural earthquake hit Okcheon, North Chungcheong Province, Sunday, the state weather agency said. The quake struck 16 kilometers east of the town, 149 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 7:03 p.m. with no damage reported so far, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. The quake, which occurred at a depth of 14 kilometers, was recorded up to Level 4 on the seismic intensity scale, the strength at which most people can feel tremors and can wake up if the quake occurs a

Social Affairs April 30, 2023

Similar to South Korea, North Korea is grappling with tumbling childbirths. The cause, however, is starkly different: famine and persistent economic hardships. The communist state’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, stood at 1.9 in 2022, according to a report titled “State of World Population 2022,” published by the United Nations Population Fund. The figure was higher than the South’s 0.78 estimated in the same year, but

Social Affairs April 30, 2023

Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Khamvongsa arrived here in 2018 to be part of the US military forces stationed in South Korea. Though not necessary for his job, he soon started taking Korean classes out of a desire to better understand the country he was helping to protect. “I can’t forget the first time I had the combo of jokbal (pig's trotters) and soju with my Korean roommate, whom I met while serving at the ex-US military base site in Uijeongbu in the same year,” Khamvongsa t

Hello Hangeul April 30, 2023

"History through The Korea Herald” revisits significant events and issues over seven decades through articles, photos and editorial pieces published in the Herald and retells them from a contemporary perspective. – Ed. In the summer of 1983, Seoul’s Yeouido Park and the nearby area surrounding a TV station building turned into a sea of people, each clutching signboards covered with the details of someone they were searching for. Thousands had gone there to post a poster fo

Hashtag Korea April 26, 2023

HANOI, Vietnam -- In 1996, Vietnam National University opened its department of Korean language and culture. Tran Thi Huong was among its first 30 students enrolled. Their teachers were Korean missionaries and volunteer workers from the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s branch office in Hanoi, who took turns teaching them. Pocket-sized Korean-English dictionaries, given by the KOICA volunteers, were their first textbooks. “The dictionaries had to be photocopied multiple ti

Hello Hangeul April 23, 2023

HANOI, Vietnam – Located a five-hour flight from Seoul is a country where the Korean language's popularity is second only to its homeland of South Korea. Here, kids as young as 8 -- or elementary school third grade -- are learning Korean at school, although not as a compulsory subject. This is the same age when they start learning English. Another indication of the Korean language boom in Vietnam is the number of those who take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), an exam for

Hello Hangeul April 23, 2023

As the train rolls toward the platform, a familiar tune begins to play. An announcement, first in Korean and then in English, follows soon after. It's a simple melody, yet one that is instantly recognizable to not just Seoulites but anyone who has spent some time in the city. It is the sound of the Seoul subway. Recently, it seems there has been a newfound appreciation for the subway platform music. Jonah Aki, an American choreographer who has lived in Seoul for a decade, owes much of his r

Hashtag Korea April 22, 2023

On a recent Tuesday morning, a sense of calm pervaded Black Hawk Village, a remnant of the Yongsan Garrison, the old headquarters of the US Forces Korea. Once home to American soldiers and their families, the village of 18 buildings is a relic from a time when the foreign military had its headquarters right in the heart of Seoul. For Hwang, a bride-to-be in her 20s, however, it is the perfect backdrop for her pre-wedding photo shoot. “The hues of the brownish-red buildings, green lawns and

Travel April 11, 2023

Javin Rukia, a 49-year-old English teacher at a middle school in the Solomon Islands, used to teach Hangeul, the writing system for the Korean language, about a decade ago. It was when two provinces in the island country -- Guadalcanal and Malaita -- chose Hangeul as their official alphabet for transcribing their indigenous languages which had been passed down orally but did not have a writing system. The southwestern Pacific archipelago, made up of 992 islands, is one of the most linguistically

Hello Hangeul April 9, 2023

In Seoul’s Yeonnam-dong, a trendy neighborhood for young hipsters, a particular trend has taken over an entire street: instant self-photo studios popping up almost next to each other. “Nine new self-photo studios have opened within just a few months in this area,” shared a person surnamed Hong who runs another such studio near Hongik University Station. It was a Tuesday afternoon and the freestanding photo studios inside stores like “Life Four Cuts” or “Haru F

Hashtag Korea April 8, 2023

In South Korea today, school bullies are public enemy No. 1. On TV screens nationwide, viewers are enthralled by the meticulously plotted revenge of a high school bullying victim. In real-life politics, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s initial pick for the head of the National Office of Investigation, former senior prosecutor Chung Sun-sin, has been under scrutiny for weeks following revelations his son verbally abused a classmate years ago. It has been some time already since the TV and sports i

Social Affairs April 4, 2023

Yoon Jae-hyuk, a member of the K-pop boy band Treasure, suffered burns to his hand while performing on stage in Bangkok, according to local news reports on Monday. The incident occurred during the act’s concert, held on April 2 at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center in the Thai capital city, with over 10,000 fans in attendance. According to footage and pictures circulating on YouTube and social media, in the middle of the band’s performance, stage equipment near Yoon suddenly

Social Affairs April 3, 2023

Following an increasing number of reports of vomiting and stomach pain after consuming cherry tomatoes, local health and agriculture authorities on Thursday pointed to a substance in tomatoes called ‘tomatine’ as the main cause of the gastric distress. Naturally produced as the tomato plants grow, tomatine normally decomposes when tomatoes begin to ripen. The substance is a chemical that allows the plants to resist negative changes in the environment, such as attacks by insects or

Social Affairs March 31, 2023

Keeping foreign nationals subject to deportation in detention centers for long periods of time is incompatible with the Constitution, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday. The clauses of the current Immigration Control Law that allow the authorities to prolong physical custody of foreign nationals slated for deportation until their departure must be amended to eliminate their unconstitutional elements, the court said in a 6-to-3 majority decision. "The statutes that impos

Social Affairs March 24, 2023