Nov 6, 2014 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — Perched above the shimmering cityscape, in an old stone house with a makeshift aluminum roof, is an elderly shaman who goes by the spiritual name “Lotus Prophet.” An anachronism among Seoul’s high-tech industrial sprawl, the shaman cries and wails...
Oct 22, 2014 | Writing
CHEORWON, South Korea — Bill Clinton called the heavily armed demilitarized zone here “the scariest place on Earth.” It is at this border between North and South that the legacy of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War — which never resulted in a peace treaty — remains tense....
Oct 13, 2014 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — “Before, my mission was to rat out communists in the temple,” explained Chung Han-yeong, who is not your typical Buddhist monk. “Now, I rat out communists everywhere!” proclaimed the 56-year-old, who speaks to a sizable crowd of followers, and...
Oct 6, 2014 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — It’s been an unusually quiet quarter for North Korea, which has avoided the occasional exchange of bellicose bluster with the US and South Korea, and has not tested a much-prophesized fourth nuclear bomb. But for the past month, a curious string...
Sep 24, 2014 | Writing
INCHEON, South Korea — Standing in front of a cluttered, rowdy classroom of about a hundred adolescents, North Korean defector Kim Su-ryeon, 25, kicks off her presentation with a pop quiz. “How many defectors have escaped to South Korea?” she asks the chattering...
Sep 22, 2014 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — “So you think you can discuss military issues without even having served?” Conservative lawmaker Han Gi-ho hurled that question at conscientious objector Lim Tae-hoon in a parliamentary hearing. “You didn’t even go!” Lim is accustomed to...
