Moving forward from South Korea's dynamic seven decades, The Korea Herald identifies the seven most crucial challenges the nation must overcome for a sustainable and prosperous future. – Ed. Climate crisis becomes irreversible reality Climate change has long been considered a future disaster rather than a present threat by many Koreans. However, it has now become a largely irreversible reality, manifesting as a series of extreme weather events that significantly affect people'

Social Affairs Aug. 13, 2023

Mariela Rodriguez Aguilar studied Korean mostly on her own for three years since high school in South Carolina. But she learned much more Korean in the last two months she spent in Seoul. She is here with 14 other students of Harvard University for a summer program at Ewha Womans University. “The opportunity to be surrounded by Koreans and getting to speak Korean everyday has been really helpful. I’ve learned so much,” Mariela told The Korea Herald on Wednesday. The linguistics

Social Affairs Aug. 10, 2023

Koreans seek comfort from a wide variety of foods in each season. In the summer, when it's either sizzling hot or rainy, people naturally look for something cold or refreshing to keep exhaustion from the high temperatures and humidity at bay. Patbingsu, a milk-based Korean shaved ice dessert with various toppings, including red beans, is a summertime favorite. If you see coffee shops starting to sell patbingsu, that means summer has arrived. "Pat" means red beans, and "bing

Hashtag Korea Aug. 2, 2023

Eleven people died of heat-related illnesses and four people drowned to death over the weekend in South Korea, authorities said Sunday. The death toll from heat-related illnesses included mostly people in their 70s and older found dead inside greenhouses or on farms in regions where temperatures shot up to daily highs of between 33 and 36 degrees Celsius. Seven people died due to the heat on Saturday alone, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Sunday. Four more deaths were reported Sunday. T

Social Affairs July 30, 2023

Four days after two cats were confirmed to have been infected with avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, at an animal shelter in Seoul, three more suspected bird flu cases in cats were reported in the city on Saturday. The three suspected cases of H5N1 virus infections were found at a cat shelter in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said, adding that it will take two or three days to find out if the infections were highly pathogenic, resulting in sev

Social Affairs July 30, 2023

A kidnapping murder case in Seoul's Gangnam district in March that sent shockwaves through the nation took a twist on Monday when it was revealed that one of the main suspects had claimed to be a special operative trained for missions in North Korea. Seven people including 36-year-old Lee Kyung-woo -- who is accused of masterminding the crime -- are on trial for conspiring to abduct and murder the victim in her 40s. During a hearing at the Seoul Central District Court on Monday, a prosecuto

Social Affairs July 25, 2023

Police investigating allegations that a fortuneteller, Cheongong, interfered in selecting the location of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official residence said that the man who visited a candidate site early last year was a different person with a similar beard, according to KBS reports last week. A former Justice Party lawmaker first raised the allegation last December that Cheongong, who claimed to be a personal mentor to Yoon, paid a visit to the official residence of the Army Chief of Staf

Social Affairs July 24, 2023

Of the nearly 18,000 people who evacuated their homes due to torrential rains that caused landslides and flash floods from last week, some 2,200 remained in temporary shelters like community halls, schools and senior centers or with relatives, as of Friday morning. Out of the nationwide total of 11,691 households that have evacuated, 1,426 were yet to return to their homes, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said Friday. The death toll from the floods and landslides sto

Social Affairs July 21, 2023

The English version of a book about K-pop sensation BTS released earlier this month by the band's agency to mark the septet's 10 year anniversary is taking US bookstores by storm. The book, titled “Beyond the Story: 10-year Record of BTS,” by BTS and Myeongseok Kang, translated by Anton Hur and Claire Richards, topped the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover nonfiction on Wednesday. Rankings on the newspaper’s weekly list reflect sales including pre-orders for the week

K-pop July 20, 2023

In 1992, South Korea and China embarked on a new chapter in their millennia-old relationship. The East Asian neighbors with deep historical and cultural connections were enemies during the 1950-53 Korean War and adversaries throughout the Cold War era, but on Aug. 24 of that year, they normalized ties. The joint statement on the establishment of diplomatic ties, signed by their foreign ministers, said South Korea recognizes “the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal governme

Hashtag Korea July 19, 2023

Lee Seo-hyun grew up as a proud North Korean elite, always thinking about what she could do to help make her country a better place. That was until she saw North Korean agents abruptly take her best friend and roommate Su-jeong away from their school dormitory in Beijing in December 2013. A text message from Su-jeong that she would not be able to come back and that she was throwing away her phone at a highway rest stop was the last she heard from her. Lee later learned that Su-jeong’s fath

North Korea July 19, 2023

Landslide casualties and damages in North Gyeongsang Province due to heavy rainfall over the past few days show the need for new preventive measures, as most of the disasters took place in areas where landslides have not occurred before. As of noon on Sunday, Yecheon, Yeongju, Bonghwa and Mungyeong in North Gyeongsang Province reported 18 dead and nine missing due to flooding and landslides. Of the fatalities, twelve were killed in landslides. Only two of them were killed in an area previously d

Social Affairs July 16, 2023

Landslide alerts have been raised to the highest level in all parts of South Korea, except for Jeju Island, as torrential rain continued Sunday. The nation's weather agency raised landslide warnings to “serious,” the highest of the four-tier system, as deadly landslides continue to take place mostly in parts of South Chungcheong and North Gyeongsang provinces. As of Sunday morning, villages in Yecheon County of North Gyeongsang Province reported eight dead and nine missing due t

Social Affairs July 16, 2023

Days of downpour have flooded dozens of cultural properties across the country, breaking an ancient stone stele and damaging royal tombs. At Gongju, the ancient capital of Baekje between AD 475 and 538, excavation sites at Seokjang-ri, where Paleolithic relics were found for the first time in Korea, and parts of a mountain castle were inundated and damaged. At the fortress Gongsanseong built some 1,500 years ago in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, only the roof of the Manharu pavilion at the

Social Affairs July 16, 2023

North Korean university students swept top places at a hacking contest run by US-based software company HackerEarth in May, US broadcaster Radio Free Asia said on Thursday. Students of the Kim Chaek University of Technology won first, third and fourth places with perfect scores in a coding marathon for developers called May Circuits 2023 in which some 1,700 people participated. A student of the Kim Il Sung University won second place. Another Kim Chaek student finished 10th. The HackerEarth webs

North Korea July 7, 2023