“So, how much can you really know a place?” asks Lindsey Miller in her just released book “North Korea: Like Nowhere Else.” Miller, who lived in North Korea from 2017 to 2019, accompanying her husband who held the post of political secretary at the British Embassy in Pyongyang, still grapples with that question two years after returning home. And she is not alone. North Korea is an enigma that perplexes experts, visitors and even casual observers who hear about the co

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” So spoke Juliet Capulet to Romeo Montague in Shakespearean tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.” But, of course, there is a lot in a name. It is by which you are called your whole life, it is your identity. In Korea, where names take on a great significance, a lot of thought and care are taken in naming a new born. Often, one character of the two-character name is used by everyone in a

The blooming of yellow forsythias heralds the long awaited arrival of spring. The golden bells are everywhere, on the sides of Seoul’s numerous rocky mountains, by the Han River and along school fences. The golden yellows are soon joined by the creamy white elegance of magnolia blossoms that, at night, look like candle lights floating midair. All too soon, they fade, the large petals falling to the ground one by one. But don’t despair, there are delicate pale pink cherry blossoms

Since ousting the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on Feb. 1, the military junta in Myanmar has killed more than 600 as the people of Myanmar continue to resist military rule and call for democracy. Among those killed are more than 40 children, including Khin Myo Chit, 6, who was shot while in her father’s arms as the military raided her home. There have also been reports of bodies being burned beyond recognition. In one case of egregious brutality, a ma

On March 22, 2020, Soh Chang-rok was diagnosed with COVID-19. Henceforth, he would be known as “Seongbuk-gu #13” to the public. That Soh was a professor at Korea University and a human rights expert with years of experience at the UN did not mean anything. He was just the 13th confirmed case of COVID-19 in Seongbuk-gu. In the early days of the pandemic, authorities routinely posted information on confirmed patients, including their sex, age, the district where they lived as well as

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. By then, the novel coronavirus first reported by China on Dec. 31, 2019, had spread to 114 countries and been given the official name of SARS-CoV-2. A year later, COVID-19 has left virtually no corner of the world unscathed and continues to rage on in many countries. In Korea, where the third wave of the spread has continued unabated since mid-November with daily totals of new cases reported in the 400s in rece

Koreans take their food seriously. So much so that a typical greeting includes “Have you had your meal?” and phone calls more often than not end with a promise of a meal together sometime soon. Television and the internet are inundated with restaurant reviews and cook-offs between celebrities, and cooking shows in general have evolved into entertainment shows. Korea is a nation of foodies, judging by the great lengths, literally, that people will go to in order to check out the lat

Watching “Minari,” a largely autobiographical film by Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung, I recalled a young family who one Sunday joined a church service of mostly Korean and Korean American college students in western Massachusetts in the late 1980s. They were an immigrant family, like the Yi family in “Minari,” and the father worked as a chick sexer, like parents Jacob and Monica in the film. It was the first time I had heard of the job, which involves determin

You know you’ve made it when you hear your songs everywhere you turn. When you are signed up with major advertisers, including Samsung Electronics for their latest phone commercial, you know you are at the top of your game. Band Leenalchi finds itself in just that position. Launched in May 2019, the seven-piece band took the country by storm when tourism promotion videos featuring the band’s music and the Ambiguous Dance Company went viral last summer and there has been no looking b

Seollal, or Lunar New Year’s Day, typically means staying up until late at night the previous day and waking up at the crack of dawn to prepare the family breakfast. In our family, which does not hold ancestral rites, the big family breakfast has evolved into a brunch with more than 10 dishes topped by the requisite tteokmanduguk, eating of which marks getting a year older. Because of all the cooking involved, the days leading up to Seollal are filled with growing anxiety and dread. I am

You are young, ready to plunge into life. You have plans, places to go, things to do. And boom, the walls close down on you. You are trapped. That is how young people around the world must be feeling in these pandemic times. For those on the cusp of full-blown adulthood, that delicious time of irrepressible youth and seemingly infinite possibilities, COVID-19 is a disruptor that has robbed them of the life that is rightfully theirs. The circumstances are no different for Lee Jeong-hyung wh

Alas, before I have had a chance to decide on a New Year’s resolution, or decide whether to ditch the whole idea of making resolutions as suggested by some self-improvement gurus, we are nearing the end of January. A whole month has gone by in the blink of an eye and now there are only 11 months left to the year. It is said that when you reach a certain stage in life, the passage of time feels different, that time appears to pass more quickly. Some experts attribute this to brain chemical

There was a spring in my step as I walked up the stairs to the office after the longest stretch away since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hollering “Best health for the new year!” to security personnel at the entrance lobby nearly two weeks into the year felt great. Since late December, most of the staff members of The Korea Herald have been working from home. On Wednesday, I was back at the office for a meeting. The sight of piles of old newspapers and unopened envelopes st

I have been working from home for most of the last two weeks after the government implemented the Level 2.5 social distancing scheme. During the period, I have stepped outside the house on three occasions -- once to a department store and once to a bookstore to get Christmas presents that could not be bought online and then once more to buy wrapping paper. Each outing was a brief affair, dashing in and out of the store after getting what I needed. No lingering and browsing. So, I may not be ent

Like many people living through this pandemic year, I suddenly found myself with time on my hands as events and meetings were scheduled, rescheduled and, in most cases, canceled altogether. Once the initial panic over the unknown illness dissipated, I became elated at the prospect of more unscheduled free time. I envisioned reading for pleasure, tackling overdue home projects and spending more time at the gym. Well, nearly a year into this prolonged state of limbo, I can report that most of t

If you see a young man in black walking along the walls of Gyeongbokgung, cloaked in the darkness of the witching hours as he is wont to do most days, you may have just run into Kwon Joon-hyuk, better known as magician Ed Kwon. Just a semester short of graduating from university in Las Vegas, where he majors in hospitality management, Kwon has been in South Korea since June, waiting to serve his mandatory military service. Walking in the middle of the night became a way to clear his mind at a

Putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend, I was reminded once again of all the plans that came to naught this year, including long-planned trips. Among the ornaments that hang on the tree are baubles and trinkets bought on trips abroad -- a rough, handmade snowman bought at an Amish village in Pennsylvania, a Tiffany-style glass ball picked up on a rushed weekend trip to New York. Collected over the years, they remind us of our times there. It goes without saying that there were no new or

When I met Florian Riem, CEO of the Tongyeong International Music Foundation, for the first time at the Tongyeong International Music Festival in the spring of 2015, I noticed he was speaking through an assistant who spoke Japanese and Korean. He had worked in Japan prior to coming to South Korea and spoke Japanese. “Oh boy,” I thought. “This is going to be some ride for both the city, his employer and him.” I was anxious for the small port city in the southwest, led by

At 72, Hahn Dae-soo is as exuberant as ever, his throaty laughter and irrepressible energy filling the studio. The “halbae,” a term of endearment for grandfathers in Korean, as he calls himself, is back in Korea after four years in New York. But he is no ordinary halbae: He came to record his 15th album, “Blue Skies, White Clouds,” which was released Nov. 14. “It is the pandemic, the desire to spread the word that it is not the time to sing about togetherness, t

As I write this, Thursday afternoon in Seoul, more than a full day after the 2020 United States presidential election came to a close, it remains unclear who is the winner. The Democrats, who had largely expected a “Blue Wave” and even a landslide victory, are expressing dismay while political pundits pronounce a nation deeply divided. When President Donald Trump won the election in 2016, despite having lost the popular vote to his rival Hillary Clinton, many were ready to see it