Most people walk past a grimy playground slide or a dirt-caked park bench without a second thought. Cho Hee-jae stops to see if it needs cleaning. Since May, the 30-year-old has spent his spare time traveling across Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province to scrub apartment playgrounds and other public facilities, paying for the work himself. “I would pass dirty playgrounds and other public facilities and think, ‘I wish someone would clean those,’” Cho said in an interview with The Korea Herald on

Vicent Creux, better known by his Korean name Onyu, knows why Koreans are drawn to him. The 25-year-old from Equatorial Guinea speaks fluent Korean and sings trot — Korea’s oldest form of pop — with a depth of feeling well beyond his years. His favorite is Young Tak’s “A Glass of Makgeolli.” He jokes that a Korean grandfather may be living inside him. To many here, he can seem more Korean than the locals themselves. He takes characterization in good humor, though it does not always sit comfortab

For most people, getting from Seoul to Busan means roughly 2 1/2 hours seated on the KTX. Isaiah Addison, better known as Zay, went the long way: on foot. The long-distance runner, freelance model and content creator set out from Seoul on Aug. 8 and covered nearly 700 kilometers over 10 days before reaching Busan — the equivalent of more than 16 full marathons. Data from his high-endurance sports watch with built-in GPS shows 683.5 kilometers of recorded activity between Aug. 8 and 17 over the c

For many fans, being noticed by their favorite idol on stage is nothing more than a fantasy. But that is exactly what happened to Kim Yun-ju after following Girls' Generation's Taeyeon for almost a decade. At her solo concert in Singapore on Aug. 20, 2023, Taeyeon lifted her gaze beyond the stage, as if speaking to someone out of sight, and said, "She's picking up my tone with such excellence, so thank you so much.” The shout-out from her favorite idol left Kim in tears, as everything that had l

For some, 40 might seem too late to start a modeling career. But for Heo Yong-jin, it was perfect timing. Last July, the 40-year-old walked in an invitation-only, exclusive Louis Vuitton trunk show in Bangkok, where the French luxury house presented a collection created by its Men’s creative director Pharrell Williams in collaboration with Japanese designer Nigo. “I was in awe. Like, how did that happen to me? I thought,” Heo said in an interview with The Korea Herald on July 22. The opportunit

Amid the bustle of arriving passengers pushing trolleys loaded with suitcases and duty-free shopping bags at the arrival hall of Incheon International Airport on June 27, one sight drew curious glances: Tape-wrapped boxes and cardboard tubes stacked on a cart. The paintings arrived in Korea after an 8,000-kilometer journey from Bulgaria with a family visiting the country for the first time. They were neither for sale nor souvenirs for friends, but part of a collection of 30 paintings, mostly acr

On a Wednesday afternoon at a cafe hidden inside a museum in Seoul, visitors pay not with cash or cards, but with drawings. When a mother and daughter order two cups of coffee, they are handed blank sheets of paper instead of a receipt. As they sip, the pages gradually fill with colorful sketches. By the time the drinks are finished, so are the drawings — their payment for the coffee. "Honestly, we came in because we heard the coffee was free," said Joo, who visited the cafe with her daughter, a

By day, Oh Ji-wan is a history major at Ajou University. By night, he tracks suspected cheaters, fraudsters and missing persons as a private investigator. While many college students spend their evenings studying, socializing or pursuing romance, this one is more likely to be on the road or staking out restaurants or motels, hunting for leads. "There was one time when a family asked me to find their son, who was about my age and had run away from home and cut off all contact," Oh, 24, said in an

By the time Guy Black reached Busan in May, exhaustion had long settled into his knees and feet. Every kilometer seemed slower than the last. Days of walking 25 to 30 kilometers at a time had reshaped not only his body, but also his state of mind. Still, the 61-year-old Canadian kept moving, letting his legs carry him forward. Because for Black, this was never simply a long walk, but a tribute to the victims of the 1950-53 Korean War. On May 22, Black completed a 625-kilometer journey across Sou

Last winter — or summer depending on where you see it — Kim Hee-soo’s mornings began quietly, wind brushing past, snow crunching underfoot and, at times, the soft shuffle of penguins crossing her path. Near Marian Cove, where an icy bay teems with wildlife, the 30-year-old nurse walked each day to a small clinic at King Sejong Station on King George Island, one of South Korea’s two Antarctic research bases, located about 120 kilometers from the main land mass of Antarctica. “Marian Cove came int