After winning silver in the women’s 500-meter speedskating Sunday, Lee Sang-hwa, South Korea’s two-time defending Olympic champion, burst into tears.　PyeongChang was her fourth and possibly her last Olympics, and Lee was aiming for a third straight gold in front of her home crowd. But it was Japan’s Nao Kodaira who took the gold with an Olympic-record 36.94 seconds, becoming the first Japanese female speedskater to win an Olympic title. Lee, a longtime friend of Kodaira, had to settle for silver

South Korea’s “Iron Man” Yun Sung-bin claimed a historic gold in men’s skeleton at PyeongChang on Friday, becoming the first athlete outside North America and Europe to win an Olympic medal in winter sliding sports.The 23-year-old’s four-run time of 3 minutes, 20.55 seconds was 1.63 seconds ahead of Russia’s Nikita Tregubov who claimed silver, marking the largest victory margin in Olympic skeleton history, and the largest margin in any Olympic sliding competition since 1972. “I just want to turn

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- Tuesday’s women’s 500-meter short-track speedskating final at PyeongChang triggered a storm of angry social media posts in South Korea, after the country’s favorite Choi Min-jeong was disqualified after finishing second. Italy’s Ariana Fontana claimed gold in a photo finish, but most of the angry posts were aimed at a Canadian skater Kim Boutin who ended up winning bronze because of Choi’s disqualification.  Bronze medal winner Kim Boutin of Canada celebrates durin

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- Korean-American snowboarding sensation Chloe Kim claimed her first Olympic gold medal in her parents’ native country on Tuesday, with her extended family watching her compete in PyeongChang. 　　The 17-year-old landed back-to-back 1080s to score a 98.25 on her final and third lap, even after setting the bar high on her first run with a 93.75 unmatched by any of her rivals. 　　The young athlete cruised to victory, finishing more than eight points ahead of Jiayu Liu f

North Korean art troupe Samjiyon Orchestra’s Seoul performance was, in many ways, a carefully orchestrated spectacle of today’s ever-dramatic inter-Korean politics, featuring the Olympics, the North’s female performers and, most importantly, K-pop.　One of the highlights of the performance, which took place at the National Theater of Korea on Sunday, was inarguably the surprise appearance of K-pop star Seohyun. The 26-year-old is a member of Girls’ Generation, one of the most popular South Korean

US broadcaster NBC has apologized for a controversial comment made on Korea-Japan relations during Friday’s opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Games, after receiving numerous complaints and angry posts online.　It was NBC’s Asian correspondent, Joshua Cooper Ramo, who said “every Korean” thinks Japan has been a very “important” example to South Korea’s own achievements. 　Many South Koreans, as well as Korean-Americans, found the comment to be insensitive to the nation’s own history, including Ja

The much-awaited Olympic debut of Korean women’s ice hockey team took place on Saturday night.The team, which is the first in Olympic history to have athletes from both Koreas, lost 8-0 to Switzerland.Here is what’s being talked about the historic match on social media, including the North Korean cheerleaders, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, among others.“Hats off to her”“Hats off to her” Swiss goalie @schellingf gave a shout out to Team Korea goalie So Jung Shin, who made 44 saves on 52 sho

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- It seems like the PyeongChang Winter Games has a new, unofficial mascot: a human-faced bird named Inmyeonjo. The Inmyeonjo stages a performance at the PyeongChang Olympics opening ceremony at PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, Friday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald) The bird, which appears in tomb paintings from Korea’s ancient kingdom of Goguryeo, was featured during the opening

One of the most talked about things about Friday’s opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Games is undoubtedly Gangnam Style -- South Korean singer Psy’s song that became a mega-hit worldwide when it was released back in 2012. 　The catchy K-pop track, which features and is inspired by a lifestyle associated with the wealthy Seoul district in the title, was played as some of the Olympic teams, including the US delegation, marched into the stadium during the ceremony. 　The use of the song has receive

Jayine Chung says she gets frustrated whenever she switches on her TV these days. The 33-year-old, who works in the media industry in Seoul, collaborates often with foreign journalists who visit the peninsula to cover the two Koreas.　“All I see are North Koreans, Kim Jong-un, and Kim Yo-jong (when I turn on my TV),” Chung told The Korea Herald. 　“As much as reconciliation and peace talks between the two nations are important, I feel that there should be a balanced coverage in the media.”　It is u

The opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics took place Friday. Here is what’s behind some of the most trending words in South Korea and abroad regarding the ceremony.  (Photo on the left) (From left) Ha Hyun-woo, Lee Eun-mi, Jeon In-kwon and Ahn Ji-young sang John Lennon`s "Imagine" at the opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics. (Photo on the right) Lights in the shape of a dove enveloped the singers, symbolizing hopes for peace. (Yonhap)Imagine The first musical performance t

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- A quiet costal town near PyeongChang, Gangnueng has long been known for its local coffee scene. The area is most famous for its annual coffee festival and “cafe street” -- where about 40 coffee shops can be spotted alongside Gangneung’s scenic Anmok beach. 　During the upcoming Olympic Games, Gangenung is scheduled to host hordes of foreign visitors and athletes. The city will promote what it is known for, by holding a special edition of its annual coffee festival.

The Olympics have returned to South Korea 30 years after Seoul hosted the Summer Games, and the country has gone through rapid changes since 1988. The Korea Herald has put together a list to compare how the two events are different, as well as how the hosting country has progressed over the past three decades.(File Photo / The Korea Herald)[The Hosting Cities] Seoul vs. PyeongChang The two Olympics in South Korea, first in 1988 and now in 2018, differ the most in that they are Summer and Winter

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- South Korea’s well-known pop-songs, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and Secret Garden’s “You Raise Me Up” were among the pieces performed by North Korea’s art troupe as part of the pre-Olympics celebrations in the sub-host city of Gangneung on Thursday. Despite being met with public protests on their arrival earlier this week, the communist state’s well-known troupe, the Samjiyon Orchestra, was met with a full audience at the Gangneung Art Center.Some 150,000 South Korea

Ivanka Trump, US President Donald Trump’s daughter, is likely to attend the closing ceremony of the upcoming PyeongChang Olympics, CNN reported.　Citing a White House official, CNN reported that Trump, who also serves as her father’s senior adviser, was requested by the US President and the United States Olympic Committee to lead the country’s presidential delegation to South Korea. 　Last month, US President Donald Trump told his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in that the US would be sending a

While nearly 3,000 athletes from 95 nations are scheduled to visit South Korea for the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics, this year has a personal significance for some athletes from the US. For Chloe Kim, a 17-year-old snowboarder from Torrance, California, South Korea is where her parents are from. Many of her relatives, including her grandmother, still live in South Korea. Kim, who became the first person under the age of 16 to win three gold medals at an X Games back in 2016, is making he

South Korea’s speed skater Noh Seon-yeong had one of the most dramatic weeks of her life. The 28-year-old, who had initially been selected to represent South Korea in the women’s team at the PyeongChang Olympics, was only told last week that an administrative error by the Korea Skating Union had cost her her spot on the team.Heartbroken, she openly spoke out against the KSU through her social media account, saying she “no longer was proud” to represent her country. On Friday, however, two Russia

More than 1,200 date abuse perpetrators were arrested in Seoul from June-August, as police conducted a special crackdown on violence against women, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Thursday.Police encouraged women to contact the agency whenever they felt their safety was threatened on both public and private property during the period. Some 7,810 women reported feeling unsafe via smartphone applications and by phone. Each case was handled by officers specializing in crime prevention. Al

South Korea’s pregnant teenagers do not receive enough medical attention and are three times more likely to have premature babies than mothers in other age groups, partly because of stigmatization against teenage pregnancies and unwed motherhood, a study showed Tuesday.The study, compiled by a team of physicians at the SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center in Seoul, analyzed government data on 463,847 women who have experienced either miscarriages or childbirths in 2010. According to their research fin

About 70 percent of South Korean female resident physicians, as well as 40 percent of women nurses are pressured not to get pregnant by their employers to minimize the number of workers on maternity leave, a report by a local human rights watchdog showed Monday. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said it is issuing recommendations to the Ministry of Health and Welfare as well as the Ministry of Employment and Labor to improve working conditions for female health care workers to preven