Writing

My teacher, the J-pop idol

FUKUOKA, Japan — With declining enrollments at his junior college, Tokutaro Ushijima thinks he’s found one way to attract more students: pop idol training. The political philosophy professor at Nishi-Nippon Junior College, a two-year school in the southern city of...

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North Korea sends special envoy to China

SEOUL, South Korea — A top North Korean general and confidant of Kim Jong Un met with a senior Chinese official in Beijing on Wednesday. Pyongyang's official news agency called Choe Ryong Hae, director of the Korean People's Army politburo, a "special envoy" of his...

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How China chokes its neighbors

FUKUOKA, Japan — When the Chinese smog arrives, the medical masks come in fashion. Every few months, this city of 1.5 million people in southern Japan, not far from mainland China, gets a dose of lung clogging courtesy of its neighbor. Coal factories in the cities of...

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Is North Korea evil and clownish?

SEOUL, South Korea — You'll learn far more about what’s going on in North Korea when you leave the country, several former residents of the country have told GlobalPost. With scarce access to foreign media, the government has set up an information cordon for the...

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The Real North Korea

For a glimpse into life in North Korea, take a peek into the country’s math textbooks. “During the Fatherland Liberation War [North Korea’s official name for the Korean War] the brave uncles of Korean People’s Army killed 265 American Imperial bastards in the first...

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Japan’s yakuza gang wars

KITAKYUSHU, Japan — Visibly nervous, the chairman of a local construction company asks that we lower our voices at the lunch table, and that his name be withheld from publication. A few shady characters nearby are eavesdropping, he says. This neighborhood is the...

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Gulags? Missiles? Not to fear, Choco Pies are here

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...

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Why was an American jailed in North Korea?

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 on what are so...

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K-pop’s dirty secret

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 former...

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