Editor's note: This story was originally published on Oct. 7, 2014. SEOUL, South Korea — It’s yet another booming market that China dominates: electric shock shields, spiked batons, electric shock stun batons, thumb cuffs, neck restraints and the like. In China, 130...

Editor's note: This story was first published in May 2013. SEOUL, South Korea — This year, North Korea has been flaunting its nuclear hardware in an effort to extort concessions from the United States and South Korea. But the tactic has failed to provoke panic for one...

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Un has had a wild and crazy 2014. He rang in the New Year with rumors (later retracted) that his executed uncle had been “stripped naked, thrown into a cage, and eaten alive by a pack of ravenous dogs.” If you think that’s a grotesquely...

SEOUL, South Korea — In North Korea, Americans caught committing mere peccadilloes — offenses that aren’t even crimes elsewhere — can expect little mercy from Kim Jong Un’s regime. Close to a dozen US citizens have been arrested and released since the 1990s, with a...

SEOUL, South Korea — Rapper Kwon Ji Yong, who goes by the stage name “G-Dragon,” is among South Korea’s most prominent male sex symbols, winning over fans with his suave, boyish looks and chic dance moves. Often surrounded by a bevy of female dancers, G-Dragon greets...

Editor's note: This story was originally published in January. US officials announced today that Kenneth Bae has been released by North Korea and is returning home. You can read about his surprise release here. SEOUL, South Korea — Since the Korean War, which ended in...

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...

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....

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...

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...