From the Scene In series
Stories told from where they are happening.
#Issues
# First-hand
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From the Scene In series
Stories told from where they are happening.
Would you like to subscribe?
Galaxy Robot Park: Glimpse of the future or spectacle without substance?
A dozen humanoid robots line up onstage. Rose's "APT." starts playing, and they begin to dance in formation. After that, it's Saja Boys' "Soda Pop" and Yena's "Catch Catch," with the machines shifting positions and keeping pace with one another. At first, it looks awkward. Watch a little longer, though, and it becomes surprisingly compelling. This was the scene Friday at the official opening of Galaxy Robot Park, which Galaxy Corporation bills as the world's first robot-centered cultural complex
Aug. 24, 2026 - 15:21:59
CJ CheilJedang's California kitchen feeds Bibigo's US rise
Korea Herald correspondent BEAUMONT, California — CJ Group's three-day K-pop and Korean culture festival, KCON LA 2026, drew 142,000 fans, and for many of them, the food may have mattered just as much as the music, with over 10,000 people lining up to try US-made Korean dishes at the booth run by the group's flagship Korean food brand, Bibigo. Few attendees likely knew, however, that the mandu, or Korean dumplings, on their plate traced back to a plant not far away. The factory in Beaumont, abou
Aug. 23, 2026 - 16:49:35
Inside Tous Les Jours' bid to bake its way to US success
Korea Herald correspondent LA HABRA, California — CJ Foodville, CJ Group's food service arm, brought Tous Les Jours to the United States in 2004, becoming the first Korean bakery chain to do so. After years of ups and downs, profitability finally took hold and has now been sustained for eight straight years. Part of the success story plays out inside one of the chain's 205 US stores, a roughly 80-seat outpost in La Habra, California, where the typical American bakery experience takes on a Korean
Aug. 19, 2026 - 14:43:39
A decade after brutal killing, Manila steps up protection for Koreans
MANILA — Hours before a group of South Korean reporters was due to visit the Korean Help Desk on Aug. 10, a typhoon swept through the Philippine capital, prompting authorities to order government employees to work from home. By the time the scheduled visit began, the downpour had eased. In Malate, one of Manila's busiest commercial and nightlife districts, Philippine police maintain a visible presence around the neighborhood frequented by hundreds of Koreans each day. The patrols are part of bro
Aug. 18, 2026 - 14:32:38
How Olive Young's US store makes K-beauty interactive
Korea Herald correspondent PASADENA, California — "Annyeonghaseyo, welcome to Olive Young!" a staff member called out as customers ambled through the door at the K-beauty retailer's first US store on Friday. The store, launched in May and situated on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, is designed to resemble its Korean counterparts, save for small touches like a long corridor running from the entrance to the back wall and a customer with her dog on a leash. Spanning 803 square meters, it sits acros
Aug. 17, 2026 - 15:55:12
K-pop brings the crowd, K-beauty keeps them exploring
Korea Herald correspondent LOS ANGELES — When CJ Group launched KCON in 2012 in Irvine, California, it drew roughly 10,000 fans to a modest bill of K-pop acts. Fourteen years on, and spanning 11 regions and 14 cities worldwide, the festival has pulled in a cumulative 2.35 million attendees, with last year's Los Angeles edition alone drawing 125,000. "KCON isn't only a concert, it's a broader showcase of Korean lifestyle that has pulled the festival well past its original fan base," said Park Cha
Aug. 17, 2026 - 11:01:52
Shower truck offers Seoul’s homeless more than relief from the heat
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Euljiro in central Seoul was beginning to empty after another sweltering day. Office workers and tourists drifted away as dusk settled over the neighborhood. Near Exit No. 3 of Euljiro 1-ga Station, a small truck marked “Mobile Bath Vehicle” stood by the roadside. A weary-looking man emerged after a shower, the strain of the day still visible but his expression noticeably lighter. Inside, the shower room was bright and spacious, with gleaming faucets and floors free of rust
Aug. 6, 2026 - 11:39:36
Australia’s Northern Territory courts Korean investment in gas, AI
DARWIN, Australia — Australia’s Northern Territory is courting Korean investment in shale gas, critical minerals and AI data centers, seeking to leverage its natural resources and proximity to Asia as a new growth engine. More than 160 business leaders and investors from 12 countries gathered in Darwin, Australia, on July 15 for the second Northern Territory Investment Summit. Representatives from SK Innovation E&S, Posco and Samsung C&T attended to explore potential partnerships. Central to the
July 27, 2026 - 14:26:39
Korea’s resource hunt moves beyond China
ALICE SPRINGS/DARWIN, Australia — China's tightened grip on critical mineral exports has pushed Korean industrial groups to look to Australia’s Northern Territory for alternative supplies of rare earths and natural gas. China controls as much as 90 percent of global rare earth refining, leaving manufacturers exposed to Beijing’s export restrictions. Hyundai Motor Group, SK Innovation E&S and Posco International are now exploring projects stretching from a rare earths deposit near Alice Springs t
July 27, 2026 - 14:25:03
Inside K-Heritage House, where centuries of heritage meet digital storytelling
BUSAN — K-Heritage House, the official exhibition space of the host nation for the 48th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, opened Monday at Bexco in Busan, bringing together the country's World Heritage sites, living traditions and cutting-edge digital technology in a sprawling exhibition the size of roughly two soccer fields. A few steps inside, visitors can move from prehistoric rock carvings to royal rituals, then on to traditional music and demonstrations by master artisans. Child
July 21, 2026 - 14:06:20
One face, one formula: Inside Amorepacific's AI beauty lab
Yongsan-gu has never been Seoul's beauty district, not like Seongsu or Myeong-dong, but it may be inching in that direction with Amorepacific's newest flagship store, Amore Yongsan, where beauty means one formula for one face. During The Korea Herald's visit to the store last week, a two-armed robot behind a glass wall labeled Hera Custom Match was at work inside its own sealed booth, selecting a bottle, carrying it to the pigment station and mixing, every so often breaking into a small dance mi
July 14, 2026 - 11:20:42
Homeplus falls silent as shoppers, workers await July 20 deadline
The banners still read, “We are open as usual.” But beyond the entrance, the reality is strikingly different. Where shopping carts would normally rattle across the floor and checkout counters buzz with customers, the store sits eerily still — as if time has stopped. Just steps away, at Homeplus’ culture center, staff spend the day making one phone call after another. “Hello, you heard we’re closed today, right?” one employee says, explaining that the day’s classes can no longer be held. With sto
July 13, 2026 - 18:53:18
In Shenzhen, the surprise isn't the tech — it's the green
Korea Herald correspondent SHENZHEN, China — The green and the hardware are not opposites in Shenzhen; they run on the same logic. The city that manufactures the world's gadgets is now manufacturing its image as a green one — and, increasingly, turning that green into a business. The first thing a visitor notices in Shenzhen may be the green license plates — reserved for electric vehicles — on car after car after car. To someone arriving from another Chinese city like Beijing, the number of elec
July 11, 2026 - 16:00:00
With no end in sight, election protests enter second month
Protests alleging fraud in South Korea's June 3 local elections have continued for more than a month with no sign of ending, as demonstrators maintain a blockade of the Olympic Handball Stadium in Jamsil, central Seoul, one of the election's vote-counting centers. When The Korea Herald visited the site on Wednesday, the crowd was noticeably smaller than in the early days of the protests. Even so, demonstrators maintained a steady presence from morning until evening, with participants rotating th
July 9, 2026 - 20:54:41
Shenzhen built an architectural icon and then filled it with trash
Korea Herald correspondent SHENZHEN, China — A building featured in a Yale University Press survey stands in Shenzhen's Longgang District. Wrapped in a vast circular shell — a form its Scandinavian designers borrowed from the Hakka roundhouses native to the district — the structure is one of 55 that critic Hugh Pearman selected for "About Architecture," his June 2023 survey of structures that help explain the world. The identity of this building is the Longgang Energy Ecological Park, and it is
July 8, 2026 - 14:49:10
