From wine and beer to liquors like soju and whiskey, numerous alcoholic beverages fill the display shelves at an E-mart24 convenience store in Cheonho-dong, southeastern Seoul. More than 700 varied options await liquor lovers, especially those who enjoy a tipple at home after work. Oh Jin-song, a 29-year-old office worker, said he drops by the specialist convenience store at least twice a week after work, which spares him the hassle of visiting the kind of busy supermarket where most Koreans b

Food Sept. 13, 2022

Two popular on-the-go meals in South Korea, gimbap and tteokbokki, have been named on CNN’s list of the top 50 street foods in Asia. Gimbap, the seaweed-wrapped rice roll stuffed with vegetables, eggs and various meat sliced into bite-size discs of goodness, has long been Koreans' go-to soul food along with tteokbokki, a dish made of white rice cakes in a thick, fiery red sauce. Stressing gimbap’s portable size, the US news network said “not unlike Japan's makizushi (

Food Sept. 11, 2022

A South Korean civic group is pushing to erect a statue to honor the late US Army Major Gen. John K. Singlaub to mark the 70th anniversary of the Seoul-Washington alliance next year, the group said Monday. The Korea-US Alliance Foundation, which was established in 2017, is in talks with the deceased general’s bereaved family in the US, as well as officials from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in Seoul for the project, officials at the group said. Details on the envisioned m

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2022

On a recent Friday morning, the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall had a group of children browsing through books, lying on bean bag chairs, picnic mats, or swinging benches under the warm sunlight. Brightly colored bookshelves were scattered across the plaza’s open lawn space, beckoning passersby to grab one and join them. Nearly 5,000 volumes of various genres and topics, from children’s picture books to novels and essays, were available for on-site reading. There was a separate e

Culture Sept. 8, 2022

A Buddhist temple site in the historic city of Gyeonggju, North Gyeongsang Province, has been struck by a mudslide triggered by heavy rains of Typhoon Hinnamnor, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration on Wednesday. The hillside Gulbulsa Temple site, not to be confused with the city’s more famous Bulguksa Temple, had its wooden structures and trees knocked down, but its most precious treasure – the Stone Buddhas in Four Directions – appears mostly intact, the agency

Social Affairs Sept. 7, 2022

The enduring popularity of Myers-Briggs personality tests among younger South Koreans is changing the way they date. Some people are using mobile applications to figure out which personality types, indicated by a jumble of four letters like ISFJ or ENTP, would be most or least compatible with them. Hwang Da-in, a 25-year-old college student in Seoul and an ISTJ herself, says her ideal match is an ISFJ, based on chats she had with virtual characters of different personality types on an app called

Social Affairs Sept. 6, 2022

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 the country estimated the illegal immigrant tally to be 396,728. The ratio of people overstaying t

Social Affairs Sept. 1, 2022

Kim Jin-ahn, a marketer at a cosmetics company in Seoul, finds his Samsung Galaxy smartphone’s built-in call recording feature very helpful, as his job entails numerous conversations on the phone.  “I receive many work-related calls, especially when I work from home. I listen to the recordings whenever I get confused about the tasks,” he said. Recording phone calls is not illegal in South Korea, if the person recording is a party to the conversation. Quite to the contra

Social Affairs Aug. 28, 2022

Supermarkets in South Korea engaging in a price war on fried chicken is a welcome development for consumers like Shin Kyung-ja (not her real name) amid the soaring cost of living.  The 64-year-old was among the 40 or so people standing in line outside an E-mart in Eunpyeong-gu, northern Seoul, an hour before its opening on Monday.  They were waiting to buy a bucket of fried chicken offered at a special price of 5,980 won ($4.50). Twice a day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the superstore has

Social Affairs Aug. 24, 2022

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 together under his rule, prayed and prayed with wishes to become human.  Hwanung, mo

Hashtag Korea Aug. 24, 2022

Late last month, residents of an apartment complex in Incheon were rattled by the discovery of a headless, mutilated torso, which turned out to be a silicone sex doll.  It was found in the building‘s parking lot, near a car that had a damaged roof. The vehicle’s owner, suspecting that the mannequin must have fallen from a height and landed on the car, reported it to the police. An investigation to identify the owner of the doll is currently ongoing.  The news of the inci

Social Affairs Aug. 23, 2022

  Tech evangelists say artificial intelligence and robots will one day liberate humans from simple and repetitive physical or cognitive tasks.  But before we are all freed from the tedium of such chores, AI first needs an army of patient workers to teach it the subtleties of the real world, such as how to differentiate between a cat and a dog.  Known as data labelers or data annotators, these workers handle large amounts of raw data, made up of images, videos or audio record

Technology Aug. 20, 2022

Advances in artificial intelligence require countless hours of human work, not just from engineers and IT professionals, but also a massive input of lower skills.  But for the development of an AI-powered virtual dressing room, hardly any skills were required. All you are asked to do for a daytime gig as an AI fashion model is to bring yourself and 10 pieces of your own clothes or other fashion items for a photoshoot.   On Aug. 3, I was among several female models who had a pho

Latest News Aug. 20, 2022

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 raging over the English terminology afte

Social Affairs Aug. 19, 2022

The age of digital avatars is coming. Soon, there will be countless virtual humans taking up various roles, such as store clerks, brand models and social influencers.  Ordinary people, too, will have digital versions of themselves, though not necessarily similar looking, deployed for everyday interactions on social media and online spaces, says Jin Seung-hyuk, founder and CEO of KLleon, a Seoul-based startup specializing in technology to create virtual humans.  “I don’t

Social Affairs Aug. 17, 2022