More than 200 people had lined up in front of the Apple Store in Garosu-gil, Seoul, as of 7 a.m. on Friday -- the day of the iPhone XR, XS, XS Max and Apple Watch Series 4’s launch in South Korea. Some had come to queue from the night before. Hours later, at 10 a.m., the line showed no signs of shrinking. The new models are by far the most expensive of Apple Inc.’s smartphone creations, with a storage capacity of up to 512 GB. The iPhone XS Max 512 GB is the priciest of the selection this time,

The first and only Apple Store in Korea will introduce the latest Apple smartphones on Friday: Get ready for the iPhones XR, XS and XS Max. Presales through local carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus closed Thursday, and -- despite hefty price tags starting at 1 million won ($880) -- the new phones have set a record that slightly surpasses the presales volume of previous iPhones 8 and X. iPhone XS (Yonhap)The Korea Herald will visit the store early Friday morning to see how the ultra-expensive n

Han Seo-hee, the controversial K-pop trainee who came to public attention in 2017 after being found that she had smoked marijuana with Big Bang’s T.O.P at his apartment, uploaded a lengthy Instagram post Wednesday night, implying she had undisclosed dirt on T.O.P and YG Entertainment.T.O.P, who had been serving as a conscripted policeman when he failed a drug test, has since been removed to serve alternative duty at a cultural center in Itaewon, Seoul. (Han Seo-hee's Instagram)Meanwhile, Han was

K-pop group Girl’s Day’s Hyeri, famous for her lead female role in “Reply 1988,” wrote a letter to fans to raise awareness for children without birth registration certificates around the world.“Across the world, there are around 230 million children under the age of 5 who have not had their birth registered,” Hyeri wrote on a fundraising site.“This lack of documentation prevents these children from enrolling in schools or receiving state-sponsored medical care.” (Happy Bean)Girl’s Day, as the am

Sky blue subway Line No. 4 of Seoul was delayed for over an hour early Monday morning due to a power outage.A Line No. 4 train traveling from Oido in the south to Danggogae in the north stopped in the middle of the city at Ichon Station at around 6:11 a.m., touching off a chain reaction of congestion that was only relieved about 1 hour and 15 minutes later. Seoul Metro, which operates subway Line Nos. 1 to 8, said that another train was used to tow the one that had stopped. No injuries were repo

EBay Korea’s online Korean goods shopping site Gmarket Global store will run a sale on K-pop goods from Nov. 1 through Nov. 11. The store will pair the sale with a verification campaign to boost its reliability as the place to go for genuine goods. (Gmarket)The aim of this campaign is to protect K-pop artists’ rights to their official goods against copycat products, according to Gmarket.Shoppers can check the authenticity of their purchases using the QR code printed on the card that comes with t

The first 2018 Jeju Hallyu Festival will kick off on Nov. 4 at Jeju Stadium. Korea Management Federation, which has been running the Korea Music Festival at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul for the previous two years, is behind the new annual K-pop festival on Jeju Island.Wanna One, AOA, Red Velvet, EXID, Oh My Girl, Momoland, NCT Dream, 9 Muses, GFriend, Hwang Chi-yeol, N.Flying, Pentagon, Stray Kids, The Boyz, Dreamcatcher and more will perform for the festival this year. Tickets for the stands can b

The 3rd Busan One Asia Festival boasted a star-studded line up throughout its nine-day run at multiple locations in the southwestern city.Zion.T was one of the singers that took to the stage on Gunam-ro to perform live in front of Haeundae Beach on Friday.(Shot and edited by Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald)During his performance, the singer-songwriter sang his latest song, “Hello Tutorial” featuring Red Velvet’s Seulgi. “You may notice that Seulgi is not here with me. This means you must help me

With less than three months left in 2018, South Korean workers are scurrying to use up their remaining annual leave in light of the Moon government’s new overtime policy. Traditionally, November hasn’t been the most favorable time to travel, but under the Moon Jae-in administration’s new 52-hour maximum workweek policy, more workers are getting a chance.According to a survey carried out by trip expense comparison site Skyscanner, out of 576 respondents, 66 percent said they still had part of the

인도의 나렌드라 모디 총리가 제14회 서울평화상의 수상자로 선정되었다.　서울평화상문화재단은 24일 중구 프레스센터에서 수상자 선정을 위한 최종 심사 후 나렌드라 모디 인도 총리를 2018 서울평화상 수상자로 발표했다. 　발표를 맡은 최정호 심사위원장은 12명으로 구성된 심사위원회가 전·현직 국가원수급 인사, 정치계, 경제계, 종교계, 학계, 언론계, 문화예술체육계 인사 및 국제단체 등 세계 곳곳에서 추천된 150여명의 후보자들을 엄정하고 객관적인 기준으로 심도 있게 심사하였다고 밝혔다.　이 중 모디 총리가 “2018 서울평화상을 수상하기에 완벽한 후보”라는 것에 의견이 모아졌다.　 서울평화상심사위원회 최정호 심사위원장이 24일 중구 프레스 센터에서 나렌드라 모디 인도 총리를 2018 서울평화상 수상자로 발표하고 있다. (사진=코리아헤럴드 임정요 기자)서울평화상심사위원회는 모디 총리가 “모디노믹스”를 통해 인도와 세계 경제 성장에 기여하고, 사회계층간 경제적 격차를 줄인 공로가 있음을

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 68, was chosen for the Seoul Peace Prize this year for his contributions to the growth of the Indian and global economies, crediting “Modinomics” for reducing social and economic disparity between rich and poor.The Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, headed by Chairman Kwon E-hyock, made the announcement Thursday, following its final selection meeting in Jung-gu, Seoul.Selection Committee President Choe Chung-ho stated the 12-member committee conducted a r

K-pop singer Jung Joon-young, 29, will try his luck at running a Korean restaurant in none other than the culinary connoisseur city of Paris.Jung will open Maison de Coree next year, according to his agency, C9 Entertainment, Tuesday. Prior to a full-fledged launch, Jung will test the waters with a pop-up store at 80 Rue des Tournelles in the third arrondissement in Paris from Oct. 29 to Nov. 17. At Jung’s side will be chef Lee Jun of Seoul’s Michelin one-star contemporary cuisine restaurant Soi

The shows are amazing at the 2019 S/S Hera Seoul Fashion Week, but the fun spills out to the streets. Brightly dyed hair was a visible trend at Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Friday, alongside see-through blouses, neon tops and transparent plastic bags.Oversized jackets, baggy pants, leopard print and fashionable eyewear also drew attention.  (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea He

Designer Hanhee Kathleen Kye’s 2019 spring-summer show at HERA Seoul Fashion Week on Friday attracted a slew of K-pop celebrities in the audience, as well as strutting down the catwalk for her brand KYE. In the photo, from left, are GWSN’s Lena, singer Ko Sung-min, makeup artist Risabe, 9 Muses’ Kyungri, model Irene, f(X)’s Amber, Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyoen, Chungha, AKMU’s Lee Su-hyun and veteran singer Noh Sa-yeon.  (Lim Je

NCT’s Lucas strutted with nonchalant confidence in the KYE show at Hera Seoul Fashion Week, Friday.Sitting in the front row at the show was f(x)’s Amber, who whispered to Hyoyeon of Girls’ Generation as Lucas walked in front of them.A look of recognition flashed across Hyoyeon’s eyes as she took another measure of Lucas, while Amber took photos of him. (HERA Seoul Fashion Week) (Lim Jeong-yeo/The Korea Herald)By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heralcorp.com)

Na Young-seok, the producer of “Grandpas over Flowers,” a TV entertainment show remade in the US as “Better Late Than Never,” said he would sue the people behind rumors he was having an affair with actress Jung Yu-mi. Jung was in the cast of one of Na’s more recent series, “Youn’s Kitchen.” The show was a hit, and a pioneering work that took Korean celebrities overseas to Gili Trawangan Island in Indonesia in season one and a beachside Spanish town of Garachico in season two for them to start ov

Immigration authorities said Wednesday they uncovered the irregular practices of a Korean agency that illegally hired Vietnamese students who entered the country to learn the local language.Between November 2016 and August 2018, the agency, located in Gyeonggi Province, hired 262 Vietnamese university students and put them to work at various subcontractor firms for large-scale supermarkets’ distribution centers. The agency profiteered off the wages the students received. If a student earned 10,0

Six-member band Kiha & The Faces announced in the dark of the night on Wednesday they would disband year-end after releasing the group’s final and the fifth regular album in November.Having worked together for 10 years, the members of Kiha & The Faces -- Jang Ki-ha, Lee Min-ki, Jeong Jung-yeop, Lee Jong-min, Yohei Hasegawa and Jeon Il-jun -- will go their separate ways after their final album as a group. “The soon-to-released fifth album will be the final work of Kiha & The Faces,” each member u

Proficiency in the English language adds to a person’s charm, it seems, as Korean celebrities update their social media feeds with The Korea Herald, the nation’s No. 1 English news daily, as props in their photo shoot or as inflight reading materials.1. Yang Se-hyeongYang Se-hyeong is the latest to join the trend with The Korea Herald. On Tuesday, Yang updated his Instagram with a series of black-and-white photos dressed in a smart suit. In one of the shots, Yang holds up The Korea Herald paper,

Tens of thousands of taxi drivers in South Korea will suspend operation on Thursday in protest of Kakao’s plan to launch a carpool service.The taxi drivers are expected to gather at 2 p.m. at Gwanghwamun Square in the center of Seoul to “campaign to build order in taxi operation business and fight against illegal carpooling.”The controversy began with Kakao’s recent announcement it would launch a carpooling service by year-end to give users an alternative option of sharing rides in personal vehi