Daniel Corks
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Gwangju: the City of Democracy

Gwangju, in the southwest of South Korea, is admittedly hard to sell as a place to live or even visit. The economically stagnant former capital of South Jeolla Province, it doesn’t have glistening shopping malls, stunning architecture or expansive green spaces. Mixing drab residential areas with industrial

Haeryun Kang
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One of South Korea's Most Famous Paintings, but by Whom?

A single painting dominates a dimly lit corner in one of South Korea’s most famous museums. It’s about the size of a magazine. It doesn’t deserve any superlatives — it’s not the grandest, most beautiful, nor the most radical among all the paintings on display. It

Jieun Choi
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Soaring Fried Chicken Prices Ruffle South Koreans' Feathers

Bite through the crunchy outer layer and into the juicy flesh, wash it down with a gulp of cold beer, then balance the greasiness of the chicken with a sweet and sour pickled daikon radish cube. The tastiness of fried chicken, and its widespread availability, have made it a popular

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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Moon Jae-in Vows to Dismantle Police Conscript Force

When young college students in Seoul went out to march through the streets calling for Park Geun-hye’s impeachment in a long streak of demonstrations that started last October, it wasn’t difficult to bump into an acquaintance blocking you — dressed in a navy military drab armed in a

Ben Jackson
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KÉ Interview: Young Pioneers for New Kind of Sex Ed

When Chopin wrote his Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2 around 1830, he may not have anticipated that it would be used as the background music for a 2017 South Korean video that used pink balloons and lubricant to illustrate proper female masturbation techniques. But it was. Welcome

Steven Borowiec
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Guess Who Is Bizzack? It's Chung Yoo-ra!

Chung Yoo-ra, the former competitive equestrian and heir to the dubious fortunes of her mother Choi Soon-sil, arrived back in South Korea on Wednesday, and picked a surprising word to describe her fate. She said her situation after having been extradited from Denmark for questioning in the political scandal that

Jieun Choi
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Welcome to K-pop Idol School, Where Only the Beautiful Enter

“We are recruiting beautiful freshmen.” This shamelessly explicit phrase on its website says everything about Idol School, an institution that aims to nurture K-pop girl group members.   In the video, girls in lolitaesque school uniforms (the skirts barely cover their thighs) vow to follow the school’s curriculum so

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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I'm Not Mad: Involuntary Psychiatric Hospitalization in S Korea

“I’m not mad,” a woman pleads. “Somebody locked me up.” The protagonist of the 2016 movie “Insane” is mysteriously kidnapped and put in a mental hospital, later waking up to find out that her family members and a psychiatrist have conspired to have her locked up there.   This

Jieun Choi
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Alternative Retreat Destination: Prison

Dressed in jade clothing with plain design and coarse texture, with an ID number on her chest, a woman sits in solitary confinement, cross-legged, gazing out the window. The room is less than five square meters, and has basic facilities like a toilet, washbowl and a table. A food tray

Se-Woong Koo
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A New Trend in South Korea: Sleep

South Korea is often called the “ppali ppali” — or quickly, quickly — nation. Speed is of the essence, whether rushing to get things done at work, drinking (think of all the soju bombs for getting drunk faster) or simply walking from A to B. But after rapid economic development

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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Dear Customer, I Love You: Emotional Labor at South Korean Call Centers

One call center is bringing back its old greeting: “Dear customer, I love you.” The needlessly romantic phrase appeared in mid 2006, but was put to an end in little more than two years after accusations that forcing call center workers to address callers “with love” constituted “emotional

Jieun Choi
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Breaking the Contract with the Republic of Korea

“Politicians are all the same. They make a bunch of promises before the election, but once elected they forget all about them.” This was a fairly recurrent comment I heard on the day of the presidential election this year while interviewing people on the street. Last year, some South