Nearly one in five foreigners staying in South Korea are without a valid visa, latest government data shows. According to the Korea Immigration Service, as of July, a total of 395,068 foreigners were staying illegally, which is 19 percent of the country’s total foreigner population of over 2 million. The figure, which is up 4,665 from a year earlier, was the highest since September 2020, when t...

This laissez faire attitude on secret call recordings is now being challenged by a group of lawmakers. Led by Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the main conservative People Power Party, the 11 legislators have recently proposed a revision to the communication secrecy protection act to abolish the “one-party consent” rule. They say one party’s consent is not enough. Those who want to record phone calls or ...

It was not her first time doing an “open run” for discounted fried chicken, capitalizing on a chicken price war among major retailers. Since late June, Homeplus has been offering its “Dang Dang Chicken” for 6,990 won per bucket. E-mart responded with an even cheaper 5,980 won chicken, while Lotte Mart jumped in with “Hantong Chicken” at 8,800 won. Homeplus said it has sold over 460,000 buckets ...

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. -- Ed. The Dangun myth tells the story of how the first Korean kingdom Gojoseon was founded in 2233 BC. A long, long time ago, a heavenly prince named Hwanung descended on the Korean Peninsula to rule over humans. A tiger and a bear, envious of people living so happily and peacefully toget...

His company, My Love Doll, produces sex dolls and sells them via its online and offline shops. The firm‘s physical store is in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, he said. Due to strict import restrictions, most sex dolls traded here are local products, he explained. The price of complete dolls made out of silicone ranges from 1 million won-5 million won, depending on their size and q...

“It‘s similar to when we read kids a picture book. We usually point out specific things and add explanations to help children understand,” Yang told The Korea Herald. For example, on a picture of a road, she marks every car she sees and adds a tag to denote that they are vehicles. For each image, she gets paid up to 1,000 won ($0.76). As simple as it sounds, the job is tedious and repetitive. W...

The pay for the day’s four-hour modeling work? One hundred and twenty thousand won ($91). Not bad at all. By Choi Jae-hee ( cjh@heraldcorp.com )

Traditional Korean medicine boasts centuries of history, with herbal remedies and holistic treatments focused on patients‘ autogenic healing power. Practitioners of herbal medicine are called “han-uisa” in Korean, and their clinics are “han-uiwon.” They are rarely ever confused with conventional doctors and clinics that practice Western medicine, known as “auisa” and “uiwon.” A controversy is r...

This means that anybody, regardless of age, gender, race or other physical traits, can become a virtual social influencer and generate profits, similar to the way YouTube gave birth to YouTubers, Jin stressed. Unlike YouTube, however, videos on Kamelo cannot currently be shared outside the platform. Another core target group for KLleon are businesses seeking to elevate the consumer experience...

By Choi Jae-hee ( cjh@heraldcorp.com )

“We have organized this event annually (to mark Taeyong’s July 1 birthday). Sinchon’s walking street is famous for music events and one of the must-go spots for foreign visitors. It’s an attractive place to hold fan events for K-pop groups,” said a member of Chinese fan club “Taeyong bar” who wished to remain anonymous. For the event, the club has obtained approval from Seodaemun-gu District Off...

As a collegiate startup, Virtual Human Power reached a key milestone in November last year, securing funding from a Korean startup accelerator called D. Camp. It was among nine startups selected to receive investment. Aside from the founder and CEO, VHP now has a team of six who play different roles from storytelling to video editing and brand marketing, she said. Ventura sees a promising futur...

Choi also raised the possibility of landslides as well. “Mountains in North Korea are mostly bare and rocky. As you know, trees, with their roots, hold soil in place and fight erosion. Heavy rain often causes huge losses of both life and property in the country largely due to the problem of deforestation,” he said. Formerly a member of the North’s Communist Party, Choi defected to the South in ...

They were the members of “Climbing in Korea,” a social club based in Seoul of more than 14,000 hikers, 70 percent of which are foreigners. It holds weekly hiking meetups, where members make new friends by hiking and trekking together. For Sushrut Kelkar, a 28-year-old Indian office worker living in northern Seoul, “easy access” is the best part of hiking in Seoul and what makes him do it on the ...

She said she included uncrewed stores in the patrol route, as the number of shoplifting incidents in such places has risen in recent years. According to data from the National Police Agency, the number of thefts at these stores surged from 203 in 2019, to 1,604 last year. A recent study conducted by researchers from Ohio State University, which examined crime statistics from 2014 to 2016 for ...