Diversity: cure for Korean misery? In the mid-1990s, while living in London, my wife and I used to travel to New Malden, the "Koreatown" south of the city, to stock up on kimchi and other essentials at a small shop selling side dishes.
Aircraft 731 The 20th century was the bloodiest in humankinds experience. Scrawled in red ink across the records of those years, and seared deep into the darkest side of human consciousness, are the names of once-secret sites where appalling crimes were commi..
Enough kimchi; bring on the 'jang' If ever there was an indication of the international reach of kimchi, this was it.
The ghosts of 'Happy Valley' Curious motorists driving through a gentle valley northwest of Seoul last Wednesday would have seen an unusual sight. On a patch of cleared ground at a crossroad, local soldiers mingled with a group of frail foreign veterans and foreign troops in d..
Kim wins war of words From the Pyongyang command bunker, it must be intoxicating.
Dissecting Kim's war declaration So it's come to this. Stunned newspaper readers worldwide learned on Saturday that Pyongyang had entered "a state of war" with Seoul. War!
The Dennis and Jong-un show He came; he saw; he got chummy with Asias last great dictator.
Richard III and Korean politics A medieval king seldom makes 21st century front pages, but one who breathed his last on Aug. 22, 1485, has managed it. The discovery of a mutilated skeleton beneath a car park in central England has refocused interest on one of history and literatu..
'The Chairman is a Gangster' With hallyu likely to continue wowing global markets in 2013 I am furiously working on a Korea-set feature film script.
Samsung comes of age You dont have to hang around Samsung Electronics for long before the word ``innovation is mentioned. Samsung people love to use it; I am not sure you can even have a chinwag with them without the ``i word cropping up.
Korea vs. aging Last year, I and several colleagues from the foreign correspondents community interviewed President Lee Myung-bak. A color photograph of the tableau the serious-looking president surrounded by several busily scribbling overseas reporters dul..
Desolation of the left Talk about a wipe-out. For Koreas left wing, 2012 has been an annus horriblis: Less a series of defeats, more one long, bloody massacre.
Candidates, don't bore us! As she may be our next president, it is germane to now ask: Has Park Geun-hye had charisma-bypass surgery?
'Brewing democratization' A Korea-related article in The Economist is currently sending sparks of excitement fizzing and crackling across the nation.
K-pop; pre- and post-Psy The scene: 8:59 a.m. in the headquarters of Cool Corea a music corporation set in darkest Gangnam. In a recording studio sits a spotty youth in torn jeans and a leather jacket, tuning an electric guitar. The door opens. In struts a smart, be-su..
Korea branders' problems By Andrew SalmonYou’d think they could get the date right. In October, ..
By Andrew Salmon
You’d think they could get the date right. In October, ..
Presidential candidates: Are you mad? So the candidates are declared. Park Geun-hye, Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo are running for Koreas top office. All eyes are on Dec. 19; the games have begun.
By Andrew Salmon
