Nov 20, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — Next month will be a big one for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as his nation hosts various conspicuous, cultish festivities. On Dec. 12, North Korean state media will probably memorialize its satellite launch one year ago, an early boost to...
Nov 16, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — Some melons are so pricey that even thieves target them. In Japan and, to a lesser extent, South Korea, fruit fuels a lucrative boutique business. Shops sell only the best hand-picked “designer fruits”— free from blemishes and spoil. In Tokyo, one...
Nov 10, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is the butt of many jokes. Its military parades, for one, offer an eclectic mix of the clownish and terrifying. With blocks of goose-stepping soldiers in Soviet-style uniforms, tanks in formation, and a pudgy young dictator looking on,...
Oct 30, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — In American and South Korean tabloids, the wife of the North Korean dictator has achieved an unusual degree of celebrity. She is, in a sense, the Kate Middleton of North Korea, and perhaps the nation’s second most iconic millennial-generation...
Oct 25, 2013 | Writing
DAEGU, South Korea — For the past three years, the US has gone full force into its much-headlined fracking revolution, capitalizing on technological innovations to tap into enormous newly-exploitable reserves of oil and natural gas. The result? Long living in fear of...
Oct 19, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — For more than 60 years, North and South Korea have been divided along the demilitarized zone, or the DMZ. Barriers — political, legal and physical — often prevent South Koreans from communicating directly with their northern brethren. To surmount...
