The Korea Times

PHOTOS Halloween returns to Itaewon

How many years does it take a neighborhood to recover from tragedy? Four years ago, central Seoul's multicultural Itaewon neighborhood suffered an unspeakable accident, when over 150 people were crushed to death in a crowded alley. In the two years following the disaster, there was an atmosphere of cautious commemoration under the watchful eye of a heavy police presence, as people worked through their trauma — and also feared judgment for being too celebratory. The area may never be the same again, but Halloween 2026 seemed a step closer back to business as usual. Halloween decorations were popping up through the neighborhood over the past few weeks, and hardcore Christians were out protesting the holiday and its perceived queerness. But it was not until Friday that the crowds really started showing up. On Saturday, the main road through Itaewon was closed off to road traffic — a precautioun that should have been taken four years ago — handing the street over to tens of thousands of pedestrians celebrating the holiday. Making room in the streets helped significantly to reduce the p

2d agoBy Jon Dunbar

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Itaewon's Lit Lounge shines beacon through dark times over 4 years

Lit Lounge opened the doors of its Itaewon location just about four years ago in late October 2022. Following a soft opening on Oct. 27 and 28, its grand opening was held on Saturday, Oct. 29, a day that would go down in infamy, after 159 people died in a crowd disaster in a narrow alley a little less than 400 meters away. "Lit Lounge's early existence was shaped by one of the most devastating tragedies in recent Korean history: The Itaewon Halloween crowd crush," said Jason Waller, owner of Lit Lounge. "For many of us operating businesses in Itaewon, the aftermath of this tragedy was even more devastating than the COVID-19 pandemic." It would have been understandable, maybe even advisable, if he just quit. But Waller, also known as Pinnacle TheHustler, decided to keep going. "I think the biggest reason I refused to close Lit Lounge was because I didn't want to look in the mirror and see someone who had given up. But for me, as long as I still believed in what I was building and I could still see a path forward, I wasn't ready to quit," he said. "And now, Lit Lounge, which started in 202

Oct 26, 2026By Jon Dunbar

Itaewon's Lit Lounge shines beacon through dark times over 4 years

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Underground show brings together 11 bands in Sinchon

A show at western Seoul's top punk venue Baby Doll brings together 11 bands Saturday. The expansive, diverse and yet reasonably affordable show is also Matthew Gamble's debut as a promoter. "A lot of people in the underground punk and hardcore scene in Korea have also been asking me to put on shows for a while, so eventually everything just collided together," he said. Gamble, the proprietor behind streetwear brand Diazable, has been working hard to promote Korea's underground scene for several years now. He can often be seen at shows filming the bands for his YouTube channel, Diazable Music Breakdown. "I’ve filmed every band on this first show in some capacity," he said. "That made it a lot easier to approach them because I’d already had some kind of interaction with them before. I wasn’t just some random person suddenly asking them to play a show." He spent a week teasing out the bands he booked, naming them one at a time twice per day. The bill includes goth doom band Lucy Valentine, metal band Varim and punk band Paper Cruise. But still, why 11 of them? "I didn’t really think ab

Oct 5, 2026By Jon Dunbar

Underground show brings together 11 bands in Sinchon

Global Community

German Korean disco-punk band returns to Seoul

Korean German musician Ja-min Oh has returned to Korea, the land of her parents, several times over her life. But it took an encounter with Rumkicks, a band of spiky-haired girl punks from Seoul, to connect her band, disco-punk duo Minoh, with the music scene here. Oh was stage manager at Pit Rock, a venue in the small western city of Aachen, when Rumkicks stopped by to play a festival on May 24, 2025. She started a conversation with Heynam Sin, who was filling in for Rumkicks on bass at the time, and Sin gave her a personal connection with the local scene. Shortly after, Oh and her bandmate Guido Kloppisch went on holiday to Seoul. "A friend put us in touch with Club Victim — they said yes, and we played as a two-piece on instruments we rented at Nakwon Music Arcade," Oh said. An online video of the impromptu show reached the Tokyo venue Ruby Room. The venue sent an invite, but the two Minoh members were already back in Germany so they couldn't play. "None of this was planned," Oh said. "Now, one year later, it is — and this whole DIY accident somehow ended up funded by the Goethe-I

Oct 4, 2026By Jon Dunbar

German Korean disco-punk band returns to Seoul

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UNHCR official to discuss global forced displacement for RAS Korea lecture

Stefan Maier hopes to see millions of refugees in long-term displacement move beyond dependence on humanitarian assistance over the next nine years, under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "50 by 35" vision. "By 2035, we want to halve the number of refugees who have been displaced for prolonged periods and remain unable to meet their basic needs without humanitarian assistance," Maier, deputy representative for the UNHCR in Korea, told The Korea Times in a recent written interview. "We live in an intensely interconnected world," the Austrian national said. "Forced displacement may begin locally, but its consequences rarely remain local. Conflicts and persecution can uproot millions of people and have repercussions far beyond the countries and regions in which they originate." He cited the arrival of around 550 Yemenis on Jeju in 2018. "I relate to that episode quite personally because I worked in Yemen from 2015 to 2017, at the height of a devastating war and humanitarian crisis," he said. "It illustrates how a conflict that may initially seem geographically dist

Oct 1, 2026By Jon Dunbar

UNHCR official to discuss global forced displacement for RAS Korea lecture

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Honey Jam Sam reflects on foreign experience in Korea in latest album

Seoul is one of the world's largest cities, but when you're in a creative community or other subculture, it can feel almost more like a small town. Right in the center of this metropolis, in a hillside neighborhood that once was a refugee settlement, Rob Nichols, the British frontman of local alt-country band Honey Jam Sam, lives in a rooftop apartment overlooking a two-lane road, where he can encounter people from all walks of life. In his apartment, he has set up his own home recording studio, which he named Sky Cottage Studios. "Somehow we have our own little community, and I have my own little space within that," he told The Korea Times. "Sometimes it doesn’t feel real, disconnected from the larger picture. I guess I’m just carving out my own little niche with my band while I can." He's preparing for the release of Honey Jam Sam's latest album, due out on Saturday, titled "East of Yeadon." The name is a reference to Yeadon Airport, now Leeds Bradford Airport in Yeadon, West Yorkshire, where he began his journey to Korea in 2009. "I was looking for a title that incorporated both el

Sep 30, 2026By Jon Dunbar

Honey Jam Sam reflects on foreign experience in Korea in latest album

Global Community

At Insa Historic Sites Museum, heritage is preserved through destruction

Some of the world's oldest extant movable metal type is on display at a new museum in central Seoul, and entry is free of charge for anyone who wants to see it. However, Insa Historic Sites Museum comes across as surprisingly modest in how it displays these remarkable pieces of typographic history. The museum's collection includes 441 examples of movable metal type, selected from approximately 1,700 replicas of the originals found at the site. This includes "gabinja," originally cast in 1434, predating Johannes Gutenberg's own movable metal type by almost two decades. There are also replicas of "eulyuja" type, cast originally in 1465, representing the oldest known surviving metal types bearing examples of Hangeul, or Korean characters. Hundreds of the little metal pieces were unearthed during a 2020-21 archaeological survey and subsequent excavation. Such surveys are a mandatory part of the redevelopment process, which wiped out the southeastern corner of downtown Seoul's historic Insa-dong neighborhood to make way for G1 Seoul, a new office building that houses the museum in its basem

Sep 27, 2026By Jon Dunbar

At Insa Historic Sites Museum, heritage is preserved through destruction

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Peace Corps Volunteers gather in Seoul, possibly for last time

Korea was in a much different state of development when U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) arrived in Korea for the first time, on Sept. 16, 1966. Sixty years later, 17 members of this first cohort, classified as K-1, returned to Korea to celebrate the mission's "hwangap," or 60th birthday. "Sixty years ago, you came to Korea as young volunteers," Song Guido, president of the Korea Foundation (KF), told the assembled PCVs during a dinner at The Plaza Seoul hotel, where they were joined by family members, Korean former co-workers and other members of Friends of Korea (FOK), a nonprofit organization founded by PCVs in 2002. "You came to teach, to work, but you also became part of communities, and formed friendships that have lasted for 60 years. Looking around this room tonight, we can see that this connection is still very much alive." "My friendship with three former PCVs helped shape my image of America," said Yoon Young-kwan, a former foreign minister of Korea. "PCVs have built that human connection as an important moment in Korea's history, and FOK has helped sustain it across genera

Sep 19, 2026By Jon Dunbar

Peace Corps Volunteers gather in Seoul, possibly for last time

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PHOTOS Block Party Music & Art Festival survives 5th year

Block Party Music & Art Festival 2026 took over central Seoul's multicultural Haebangchon and Gyeongnidan neighborhoods last weekend, presenting more than 100 music acts and other performing artists at 10 participating venues. Now that the magic, glitter and even the hangovers are wearing off, here are photos of a very limited selection of the highlights from the three-day festivities. Visit debasermagazine.com or follow @blockpartykorea on Instagram for more information.

Sep 17, 2026By Jon Dunbar

[PHOTOS] Block Party Music & Art Festival survives 5th year

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RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Maple House returns strong after renovation

There's usually not much point in reviewing a restaurant a second time. I can only think of one restaurant that has been spotlighted in this column twice: CALI Kitchen, which got an initial rave in 2023 and then a farewell before closing a year later. The second Restaurant of the Week to wear that lofty accolade twice is going to be Maple House in central Seoul's Haebangchon, which was published almost two years ago. Formerly a Korean brunch cafe with an excellent food menu, it closed down a few months ago, and I probably wasn't the only one saddened. It reopened after a quick renovation, now taking on a bit more of the character of a Western-style diner, featuring great food — albeit with some changes. When factoring in price, quality and quantity, Maple House remains my favorite place for breakfast food in Seoul. The breakfast portion of the menu has been significantly expanded, providing more options without sacrificing the earlier selections. There have been a few other tweaks to the food preparation as well. One of my problems with the previous Maple House menu was how they prepa

Sep 6, 2026By Jon Dunbar

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PHOTOS Halloween returns to Itaewon

Itaewon's Lit Lounge shines beacon through dark times over 4 years

Underground show brings together 11 bands in Sinchon

German Korean disco-punk band returns to Seoul

UNHCR official to discuss global forced displacement for RAS Korea lecture

Honey Jam Sam reflects on foreign experience in Korea in latest album

At Insa Historic Sites Museum, heritage is preserved through destruction

Peace Corps Volunteers gather in Seoul, possibly for last time

PHOTOS Block Party Music & Art Festival survives 5th year

RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Maple House returns strong after renovation

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