May 3, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — In the classic Korean mystery film JSA: Joint Security Area (2000), a South Korean soldier strays north of the demilitarized zone at the border between North and South Korea and unexpectedly befriends a handful of North Korean enemies. Later, the...
Apr 29, 2013 | Writing
Editor’s update: The US government on Monday urged North Korea to free US citizen Kenneth Bae on “humanitarian grounds” as it sought to pin down the charges against him. In November, naturalized US citizen Kenneth Bae, 44, was arrested in North Korea...
Apr 26, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — The few remaining South Korean workers will be removed from the Kaesong industrial complex, a joint venture with the North, ending hope the standoff between the two sides will be resolved. The announcement came after North Korea rejected formal...
Apr 25, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — This week, a famous K-pop star in South Korea got all teary-eyed on television, talking about the 11 years she spent preparing for her career. But it wasn’t a misty-eyed nostalgia that overcame Lee Hwan Hee, otherwise known as Fwaney, a...
Apr 24, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s household debt-to-income ratio hit a nine-year high in 2012, according to Bank of Korea data released Wednesday. The ratio — which measures the ability of Korean households to repay debt with disposable income — rose to 136 percent,...
Apr 24, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — I’m now reading an advance copy of Andrei Lankov’s upcoming book, “The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia,” due out from Oxford University Press on May 8. It’s an incredibly detailed and timely insight...
