Korea-made online shooting game “Crossfire,” the very game behind its Chinese distributor Tencent’s stunning growth in recent years, is seeking to repeat its success story around the world. And the big push is led by the game’s development chief Jang Ina, who played a key role in its Chinese success. “Gaming trends change fast and there is some skepticism about the future of the 8-year-old ‘Cro...

Beneath its ultramodern facade, Korea is a country with all the trappings of shamanism and Confucianism, a new book says. In “Contemporary Korean Culture: the Persistence of Shamanistic and Confucian Values and Practices,” coauthors Kim Eun-gi and Choi Joon-sik seek to explain the social fabric and the mindset of Koreans through the lens of shamanism and Confucianism, examining the origins and m...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is unlikely to make any apology for his country’s wartime atrocities in a much-anticipated speech to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in August, a Japanese expert said. Yoshihide Soeya, political science professor at Keio University, said that based on Abe’s personal belief that Tokyo’s past apologies were “excessive,” he may refuse to accep...

The U.S. may not need Japan’s consent to deploy its forces from Japan to the Korean Peninsula in case of a contingency, a Japanese scholar said, noting that Washington has never sought Tokyo’s agreement for a troop dispatch overseas. The issue emerged as another source of diplomatic friction after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last July that Washington is required to secure “Tokyo’s un...

Swedish director Carl Javer took home top honors at this year’s Green Film Festival in Seoul, held May 7-14, for his documentary “Freak Out.” “It’s an untold true story about how five young kids in their twenties grew up in the first consumer society,” Javer told The Korea Herald in a sit-down in Seoul on May 13. “Their reaction was to leave it, and to say they wanted something else. They revolt...

On the stage of the Blue Square Theater in Seoul’s Itaewon, Chung Sung-hwa exudes the certain aura of a martyr. Standing tall in the spotlight, the actor sings with a deep and rich voice about the lofty ideals of pan-Asian peace to which he is about to sacrifice his life. At least to those loudly applauding in the audience, Chung seems like the reincarnation of Ahn Jung-geun, a real-life Korean ...

On each desk are two copies of a text, one in Korean and the other in English. A handful of students ― some Korean, some international ― pore over each word, comparing and searching. A heated discussion ensues on the English translation of the Korean word “gap gap ha da,” as some favor “suffocating,” while others, “tedious.” A conclusion is difficult to reach, since the word could mean either of ...

Koreans take the fewest vacations in the world, according to a survey by Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company. They go on a vacation for about eight days a year, well below the world average of 20 days. The French take about 30 days of vacation. The company’s 2014 survey showed that this was mostly because of the negative perception of vacation by Korean bosses, and their tight wo...

With evolving business ties and increasingly similar strategic perspectives on world affairs, South Korea is one of the most important Asian partners for India, according to India’s ambassador to Seoul, Vikram Doraiswami. In an interview with The Korea Herald last week, the envoy noted that elevating India’s partnership with Korea was a crucial “prerequisite” to ensure the success of New Delhi’s...

When Lee Soo-ku, president of the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare, visited a dental facility in North Korea for the first time in the early 2000s, he was almost speechless. “There was literally nothing except a few very basic instruments,” he said. “There was a mouth mirror and an extractor. That’s about it.” Lee, who is also a practicing dentist, has been serving as the head of t...

When onstage as a member of Beast or half of the duo Trouble Maker, Jang Hyun-seung exudes charisma and sex appeal. But offstage, at a group interview on Monday at a cafe in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, Jang was soft-spoken and shy as he talked about his first solo EP, “MY.” “I wanted to come without any makeup, but I was afraid you’d think I didn’t really care about the interview,” he said as he sat ...

Choi Mag-gi and Kim Chun-hee are two old ladies living together in Yeongdeok-gun, North Gyeongsang Province. Their relationship is difficult to explain at first. After Mag-gi lost her two sons to a typhoon and measles, respectively, she and her husband brought in Chun-hee, who has a slight mental impairment, to live with them and to bear them a son. Although Mag-gi’s husband died decades ago, the...

A young mother with an autistic child is chased by a loan shark who demands that she pay off her husband’s gambling debt. She is beautiful and doting; her husband is well-meaning but plagued by his addiction; the loan shark is ruthless and psychotic. “Coin Locker,” which made its world premiere in the Korean Competition section of this year’s Jeonju International Film Festival, is a parade of cl...

King Digital Entertainment, the British creator of the massively-popular Candy Crush franchise, is betting big on the Korean market to repeat its success story in Asia. The company recently launched Candy Crush Soda, the sequel to Candy Crush Saga, one of the most successful digital games in the world, to lure Korean gamers. Its star-studded TV commercials in particular are garnering attention ...

At the student lounge of Nyenrode Business Universiteit in the Netherlands, students of different nationalities, appearance and accents are often seen together, pitching their opinions as they participate in an animated debate about the latest class they attended. This scene is familiar in many universities across the Netherlands, representing one of the Dutch’s biggest strengths in education, s...