Heavy rains hammered Seoul and nearby areas on Wednesday afternoon. Rain, along with thunder and strong winds, fell as clouds gathered above the Ganghwado area northwest of Seoul. The capital’s skies dimmed to a dull grey as clouds shrouded the atmosphere at noon. Seoul saw some 43 millimeters of rainfall as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. Incheon saw 26.5 millimeters, while Paju and Dongducheon witnessed 50. 2 millimeters and 36.5 millimeters of rain, respectively. Some 27.4 millimeters of rain fell in Su

YouTube was the app used for the longest periods of time by South Korean users of all ages last month, data showed Tuesday.According to Wise App’s data on the app usage of Koreans in different age groups during the month of April, Korean teens spent some 7.6 billion minutes on the video platform during the cited period.Those in their 20s spent 5.3 billion minutes on the platform. The figures for people in their 30s and 40s were 4.2 billion minutes and 3.8 billion minutes, respectively. In total,

Amid an ongoing series of diplomatic moves, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to be lifting the veil that has surrounded him and the North Korean regime long before he took over as the country’s leader in 2012. South Koreans’ responses to media exposure of Kim, in particular the historic April 27 inter-Korean summit held in the border village of Panmunjeom, ranged from skepticism to amusement and surprise. During the daylong summit, South Koreans were able to witness, via live broadcast, s

For Park Hyun-ah, 30, life was always meant to follow a certain trajectory. After graduating from high school, she went on to a prestigious university, after which she was certain she would pass the bar exam or land a high-paying, stable job. Fierce competition obstructed both options, and Park entered graduate school. Having at least tackled the hurdles of education, the next rite of passage was employment. But after a year of job seeking, Lee remained jobless. Last month, she nabbed a contract

Interest in North Korea has heightened following the inter-Korean summit that took place last Friday. In subsequent days, tourists have been flocking to a replica set of Panmunjeom, the border village where the talks took place and which received international media exposure for the entire day, located in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. Though the original Panmunjeom and the surrounding Joint Security Area, located in Paju, have long been the target of global attention, access to the area is large

The wisecracking mercenary superhero Deadpool is not too different from Ryan Reynolds, said the actor who plays the character at a press conference in Seoul Wednesday.The actor visited Korea to promote “Deadpool 2,” the sequel to the Marvel superhero film “Deadpool” released in 2016. The second installment is set for a world premiere in Korean theaters on May 16. “I would say we‘re a pretty close match,” Reynolds told reporters of his character at a hotel in central Seoul. “The only difference,

Amid an amicable summit between the two Korean leaders at Panmunjeom on Friday, a herd of stoic North Korean men clad in suits grabbed the attention of viewers watching on television. As Kim Jong-un strode toward the border between the two Koreas, a flock of security guards surrounded the North Korean leader in a V-shaped formation. The fourteen tall, suited men scattered when Kim approached South Korean President Moon Jae-in, waiting at the demarcation line. A few hours later, when the morning

Following the historic meeting between the two Koreas’ leaders on Friday morning at Panmunjeom, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un said something to South Korean President Moon Jae-in that caught the ears of many Koreans watching the conversation via television.The two heads of state met and exchanged handshakes charged with historical significance at the Military Demarcation Line at 9:30 a.m. After a welcoming ceremony and walk to the meeting venue, the Peace House, the two leaders sat down for the summ

President Moon Jae-in greeted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as he crossed the border into South Korea at 9:30 a.m. for their day-long summit talks at Panmunjeom. This is the first time a North Korean leader has set foot south of the border since the end of the Korean War.The two leaders were all smiles as they shared a historic handshake, engaged in brief conversation and walked together toward the Peace House, where the summit is to take place. (Cheong Wa Dae) (Cheong Wa Dae) (Cheong Wa Dae)

People living in Korea remain at once skeptical and hopeful of the historical inter-Korean summit set to take place Friday in Panmunjeom, on the border of the two Koreas. North Korean denuclearization and the establishment of peace on the peninsula are among the key items to be discussed at the table between Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In recent months, roughly since the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games, the North has shown unprecedented overtures in favor of

Seoul City plans to renovate building signposts in Gangnam-gu, the district’s office said Monday. The project aims to tear down old and worn signposts and replace them with new ones that befit the identity of each shop and street, the office said. Some 179 signposts are part of the project, in streets including the Ilwon 1-dong area and Gaepo-ro 22-gil, home to the country’s sole Gugak (Korean traditional music) schools. The renovations on the street will thus be highlighting the theme of cultur

Koreans around the country are mourning the fourth anniversary of the Sewol Ferry sinking, which claimed the lives of over 300 passengers, many of them high school students, on April 16, 2014. Officials enter the conference room at the Korea Coast Guard headquarters, located at the Central Government Complex in Sejong on Monday. Korean expats hold a memorial for victims of the ferry incident, which capsized four years ago, at a village near Munich, Germany on Sunday, local time. Funeral offician

A growing number of Koreans in their 20s and 30s are turning their small studio apartments into cozy nooks. More people are sharing photos of their home interiors on social media platforms, showcasing carefully decorated rooms. A search of the hashtag “ja-chi-bang,” a Korean word for small studio apartments where people live alone, on Instagram found over 180,000 posts. Photos of carefully decorated studio apartments are uploaded on Instagram. (Instagram)The photos depict snug, warmly lit spaces

Exports of cigarettes, which rank top on the list of export items tracked by South Korea’s Agriculture Ministry, plunged during the first quarter of this year. Cigarette exports totaled $210.6 million from January to March, marking a 28.3 percent drop from the same period last year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Sunday. The exports were hit hard by the United Arab Emirates’ imposition of a 100 percent special consumption ta

Working out at home, often referred to as “home training” in Korea, is rising as a trend among busy modern consumers. Without leaving the comforts of the home, people are able to carry out an extensive workout, proponents say. A wealth of home training videos available online allow those pressed for both money and time to stay fit with less hassle.Along with the fad, there has been a rise in sales of exercise equipment for those opting to break a sweat at home. In January, sales of yoga mats ros

After the brief cold spell Korea meets every year in spring, temperatures have turned mildly warm once more. Cherry blossoms were in full bloom on Wednesday afternoon, which saw highs of 18 degrees Celsius, at the Seokchon Lake Park in Songpa, southern Seoul. Nearby residents and passersby were seen strolling along the park amid the flowery trees, welcoming the return of spring. Written by Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com) Photos by Park Hyun-koo (phko@heraldcorp.com) 

Korean fashion and cosmetics company Nanda, which runs the popular clothing brand Style Nanda, has selected L’Oreal as the preferred bidder to buy a 70 percent stake in the company, reports said Tuesday.The deal with the French cosmetics giant is estimated to be worth 400 billion won ($375 million). Nanda’s founder Kim So-hee, 35, who holds a 100 percent stake in the firm, will have a 30 percent stake in the company after the sale, according to reports that cited Swiss global investment bank UBS

The season of outdoor picnics has dawned. If Western countries have the sandwich, Korea has gimbap as item of choice for dining alfresco in the park.A roll of gimbap -- rice, vegetables and other ingredients wrapped tightly in a seaweed laver sheet -- is considered both the classic picnic lunch and takeout food for Koreans.The typical gimbap consists of white rice, carrots, spinach, fried egg, ham, cucumber and yellow pickled radish. A timeless item on the lunch menu for Koreans, gimbap has also

About 16 percent of apartments bought and sold in Seoul during the first quarter of the year were expensive real estate.Out of the 24,606 Seoul apartments traded between January and March, 3,921 units were worth over 900 million won ($841,000), according to statistics released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Monday. It posted a rapid on-year increase. During the same period last year, only 11.5 percent of apartments bought and sold were worth over 900 million won.  Mea

Plastic bags make up over one-third of Seoul’s recyclable waste, according to statistics released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Friday. Some 203,971 metric tons of recyclable waste, including paper, glass bottles, cans, plastic containers and plastic bags, were collected in 2015. Of this amount, over 59,189 metric tons were plastic bags, or 29 percent of all the waste.  (Pixabay)The neighborhoods that contributed the largest amounts of plastic bag waste were Seocho-gu, Seodaemun-gu and