[Newsmaker] South Korea’s most infamous serial killers

Recently, the possibility police discovered a new serial killer sent shock waves across South Korea. Lee Ki-young, who was arrested late last month for the murder of a taxi driver and his ex-girlfriend, will undergo an extensive investigation into additional DNA found inside his home. Looking back, South Korea’s history of serial killers is still considered for its hateful brutality and aggression. Here are three of Korea’s most notorious serial killers: 1. Lee Choon-jae, the &l

Jan. 10, 2023

[Land of Squid Game] Covering mouths while laughing

    You will probably see some Korean women covering their mouths when laughing. This doesn't imply that they are shy. Some women will even hide a small laugh behind their hands. This is merely a sign of modesty and politeness. On the other hand, this could give an impression to non-Koreans that Koreans are shy or don't express themselves openly. Min Byoung-chul is an endowed chair professor at Chung-Ang University who is widely known as a multicultural educator and for his practical

Jan. 10, 2023

[Ask a Lawyer] To marry a Korean, first prove your single status

Last year, South Korean singer-producer DJ Koo Jun-yup’s story of rekindling an old love with Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu made many swoon. Announcing his marriage with the ex-girlfriend, Koo, 53, said he was “resuming the love he had but couldn’t realize 20 years ago.” Through all the sweetness, the international star couple would have gone through some paperwork to become legal husband and wife both in Korea and Taiwan. Hsu, in particular, would have been asked to prov

Jan. 9, 2023

[Land of Squid Game] Standing too close

    Many cultures have different ideas about how much personal space is needed to feel comfortable. Personal space is like a no-fly zone or a bubble around each person. It is an extension of them. If another person, especially a stranger, enters that space; it might seem like a personal violation. For many Westerners, if they can feel someone else's body heat, the other person is definitely too close for comfort. However, people in South Korea have a different concept of personal spa

Jan. 3, 2023

Sky high home prices contribute to low birth rate: study

High cost of housing plays a role in South Korean couples not wanting to have babies, new study suggested, as the country struggles to find ways to reverse a shrinking population. According to the report, released Monday, by the state-affiliated Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, a 1 percent rise in the median home prices leads to 0.002 fewer births per woman. As of end-2021, Korean women had an average of just 0.81 babies over their lifetimes, which was the world’s lowest t

Jan. 3, 2023

[Ask a lawyer] What’s the difference between departure order and deportation?

In July last year, more than 60 Vietnamese were caught organizing, or taking part in, “drug parties” at nightclubs and karaoke bars in Busan and other southern cities. On top of any penalty they had received from Korean law enforcement, the foreigners were given an order to leave the country from the immigration authorities, along with a permanent reentry ban. For some, it was deportation, while others received a departure order. What is the difference? Here, Kim Ju-hyeong, a senior

Jan. 3, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] A snapshot of Korean language now

The following series is part of The Korea Herald’s “Hello Hangeul” project which consists of interviews, in-depth analyses, videos and various other forms of content that shed light on the stories of people who are learning the Korean language and the correlation between Korea’s soft power and the rise of its language within the league of world languages. – Ed. Korean has 81.7 million speakers around the globe, although most of them are found on the Korean Peninsula

Jan. 2, 2023

[Hello Hangeul] Common language, diverse goals

The following series is part of The Korea Herald’s “Hello Hangeul” project which consists of interviews, in-depth analyses, videos and various other forms of content that shed light on the stories of people who are learning the Korean language and the correlation between Korea’s soft power and the rise of its language within the league of world languages. – Ed. South Korea’s thriving popular culture has been drawing an increasing number of curious young pe

Jan. 2, 2023

[Korean History] 70 years and growing: Korea Herald's legacy and beyond

Before there was The Korea Herald, there was The Korean Republic. On Aug. 15, 1953, a four-page tabloid began publication with a mission of telling the world South Korean stories from South Koreans’ perspective. For a small, impoverished nation that was just setting out to rebuild the ruins of the war, the world was a hostile place, where superpowers -- the US and the now-defunct Soviet Union -- dominated the global agenda and the voices of smaller countries were too often muffled even w

Jan. 2, 2023

[Korea Quiz] (36) Rice cake soup’s ‘magical’ effect

Find the answer at the bottom of the page. According to Korean tradition, eating a bowl of tteokguk, or rice cake soup, on New Year’s Day is supposed to make the person one year older. This stems from the Korean custom of counting ages, in which a person gets one year older on Jan. 1 of each year, not on their birthday. As such, the day Koreans eat tteokguk is usually the day they become one year older. It is unclear when this tradition began. But a 19th-century document written by sch

Jan. 1, 2023

[Korea Quiz] (35) Koreans' favorite winter snack

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. -- Ed. Find the answer at the bottom of the page. In Korea, some street snacks are strongly associated with a particular season. The most iconic seasonal delicacy sold at street stalls around this time of year is bungeoppang, which literally translates to carp bread. These fish-shaped waffles, stuffed with sweet red bean paste, ranked atop an online survey of favorite winter snacks, condu

Dec. 28, 2022

[Land of Squid Game] Bumping into others in crowded places

    People can't help but bump into others in overcrowded Korean cities. Koreans think that this is unavoidable, and no one seems to mind, unless the contact hurts.  On the other hand, some foreigners may find this form of physical contact with strangers to be irritating since they are accustomed to maintaining their own personal space in public places.   Min Byoung-chul is an endowed chair professor at Chung-Ang University who is widely known as a multicultural educator and

Dec. 27, 2022

[Newsmaker] For whom the Bosingak bell tolls: Koreans celebrate return of New Year's ceremony

The New Year’s bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak will be back this Saturday as an offline event for the first time since 2019. Coronavirus restrictions had forced the ceremony to be held exclusively online for the past two years. Just as Americans gather to see the ball drop at New York City's Times Square at midnight, South Koreans flock to the Jongno-gu area to see the old bronze Bosingak bell being rung 33 times, a time-honored tradition with religious roots that signifies “c

Dec. 27, 2022

[Ask a lawyer] Departure order as consequence of law breaking

From work contracts to marriage with a Korean citizen and accidental breaking of local rules and laws, foreign residents can find themselves in complicated legal situations. Ask a Lawyer covers the most common legal issues faced by expats in South Korea through Q&A with lawyers practicing in the very field. -- Ed. Last year, an Indian man had to cut short his stay in South Korea, originally planned for two years. The reason? He was caught driving under the influence of alcohol. The man, age

Dec. 26, 2022

Starbucks aficionados flock to Seoul’s Gyeongdong Market

A Starbucks neon sign hanging on the wall of an old building emits a soft green glow in the midst of street vendors offering seasonal greens and traditional herbal medicines. Young couples and office workers walk past the food stalls surrounded mostly by elderly shoppers looking for a bargain as they head toward a hidden gem in the marketplace -- a new Starbucks store within Seoul’s Gyeongdong Market that just opened last week. Dubbed “Kyungdong 1960,” the new coffee shop is a

Dec. 25, 2022

[Korea Quiz] (34) Color of Korean soccer

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. -- Ed. Find the answer at the bottom of the page. Many Koreans avoid writing their name in red as it traditionally signifies death, and in the political arena the color red has long been linked with communism after the Korean War. But the 2002 World Cup transformed the meaning of “red” into unity and strength when hundreds of thousands of unwavering "Red Devils” fan

Dec. 21, 2022

[Land of Squid Game] Keeping the same family name after getting married

    In Korea, the norm is for women to continue using their own surname after getting married. For the wife to take their husband's surname is a foreign concept. If you call a Korean woman by her husband's family name, she may be unaware that you are calling her.  Children will take their father's family name. Korean women keep their family name after marriage because one's name is something that is inherited from their parents ＆ ancestors and should not be changed. Min Byoung-

Dec. 20, 2022

[Weekender] Feces heals? Peculiar Korean home remedies and their effectiveness

Korea has had an abundance of home remedies throughout its history. Many of them are as simple and harmless as drinking plum tea when you have a cough, but some can be as extreme as downing water from human feces. These methods have varying levels of effectiveness and most medical experts voice concern about following them blindly. One example of time-old home remedies still practiced by many in Korea is poking your finger with a needle to cause it to bleed in case of indigestion. Although not a

Dec. 17, 2022

[Feature] Korea is no country for long names

When Vittoria Oliveira de Souza Ventura came to South Korea from her native country of Brazil five years ago, she didn’t expect her name to cause trouble. “My full name is more than 25 characters long (in the English alphabet) and I was denied access to many services because name registration was not possible,” Ventura told The Korea Herald. When written in Hangeul -- the Korean alphabet -- her full name is 16 characters long, compared to most Korean names' three. “I&rsqu

Dec. 15, 2022

[Korea Quiz] (33) Is it really ‘cool’?

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Find the answer at the bottom of the page. In America, the word "bad" is sometimes used colloquially to actually mean that something is very good. In Korea, a comparable word would be “si-won-ha-da,” which literally means cool, but is also used to mean something completely different. A Korean might say “si-won-ha-da” when he or she is sitting on a h

Dec. 14, 2022