SEOUL, South Korea — Menacing battalions of police, wearing neon yellow uniforms and carrying anti-riot shields, regularly march through the South Korean capital, at times showing up en masse to small and harmless protests. In Gwanghwamun Square, a government district...

SEOUL, South Korea — The citizens of this hyper-competitive East Asian nation are the most cosmetically enhanced people in the world, going under the knife more per capita than Americans, Italians, Greeks and Brazilians. Here in Apgujeong, a beauty belt in the...

SEOUL, South Korea — Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi, who goes by the alias “Good For Nothing Child,” finds herself in an unusual bind in a country known for its blunt eroticism: fighting obscenity charges for a crowd-sourcing effort to build a kayak modeled after her...

TOKYO, Japan — Few outsiders will ever get to witness Japan’s surreal state within a state, a network of businesses and schools that have sworn allegiance to North Korea. It’s a surprising sight: Some 10,000 children at schools all over Japan have been known to...

SEOUL, South Korea — This sprawling East Asian capital is renowned for its epic commutes, hard-charging work force and money-making ethos. But Seoul’s beloved mayor, Park Won-soon, is determined to soften the city’s aesthetic and transform it into a greener, cooler,...

SEOUL, South Korea — The biggest shock to Dr. Robert Jiao wasn’t Tinkerbell’s size. He had heard of teacup puppies: cute canines bred to grow so small that they can, as the marketing gimmick goes, supposedly fit in a teacup. No, he was aghast that a puppy as young,...

SEOUL, South Korea — The world’s oldest known man, Alexander Imich, born in 1903, died Sunday in New York. The torch will most likely be passed to 111-year-old Sakari Momori, who comes from a country full of elderly people: Japan. The Guinness Book of World Records is...

SEOUL, South Korea — It’s been a while since horse-galloping YouTube celebrity Psy followed up on his first global hit, “Gangnam Style,” and its less famous successor, “Gentleman.” For a while, it appeared the eccentric Korean rapper would fall into the abyss as a...

1. You can watch the sun rise and set from the city’s four peaks You can also gaze upon the coolest, most sprawling neon-lit cityscape you’ll ever see. 2. There's such a thing as haute-couture hiking (CHELSEA MARIE HICKS/Flickr Commons) You can’t go a month without at...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Three months pregnant at the time, Sam Ath doesn’t remember collapsing two months ago at the crowded, muggy garment factory where she works at the southwestern edge of the Cambodian capital. The 30-year-old woke up in a hospital bed, only to be...