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Jhoo Dong-chan

Korea Times AI content 2 team Reporter

Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.

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Environment & Animals

Urban oasis: Seoul's historic heart expands community gardens across its alleyways

Amid the densely packed alleyways and high-rise corporate towers of central Seoul, a quiet green revolution is taking root. Jongno District, the historic core of the Korean capital, said Friday that it is rolling out "Jongno Gardener Village 2.0" — a major expansion of its public urban gardening initiative designed to transform municipal spaces and neighborhood lanes into vibrant, resident-tended micro-gardens. The initiative, launched last year as a public-private partnership, bridges civic engagement with corporate social responsibility. By teaming up with local nongovernmental organizations such as Forest for Life and corporate sponsors such as Kakao Makers, the district has cultivated a sustainable governance model that cuts municipal costs while delivering green welfare directly to residents. Under the initial phase of the project, volunteer gardener crews focused on four primary hubs: Bukchon, Seochon, Sajik-dong and the Cheongjin-Insa-dong corridor. Phase 2.0 shifts this strategy from isolated hub gardens to a district-wide web of green space, empowering local residents to cult

Jul 24, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Urban oasis: Seoul's historic heart expands community gardens across its alleyways
Environment & Animals

Korea expands high-precision weather data sharing to Southeast Asia, Oceania

When the Korean Meteorological Administration launched its proprietary weather forecasting framework in 2020, it placed Korea in an elite fraternity: one of just nine nations worldwide to build an independent, end-to-end global numerical prediction system. Now, Seoul is broadening its operational footprint into Southeast Asia and Oceania, crossing the equator to deliver real-time data to some of the most climate-vulnerable regions. The agency said Friday that it has officially broadened the operational reach of its signature system — the Korean Integrated Model, or KIM — to encompass 33 distinct meteorological data feeds across Southeast Asia and Oceania. The expansion brings granular, high-altitude wind and temperature intelligence to 117 cities across five island states: Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Brunei. The initiative aligns with the World Meteorological Organization’s Severe Weather Forecasting Program, a global effort designed to equip developing and archipelagic nations with advanced forecasting tools to anticipate extreme weather events before di

Jul 24, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Korea expands high-precision weather data sharing to Southeast Asia, Oceania
South Korea

Seoul launches playbook to help call centers deal with hostile callers

For millions of Seoul residents, dialing 120 connects them to a 24-hour lifeline for city transit schedules, social welfare inquiries and municipal services. But behind the scenes, answering the phone can also mean confronting severe verbal abuse, sexual harassment and hostile callers. To protect these frontline workers — and meet surging global demand for its call-center operation protocols — the city-run 120 Dasan Call Foundation said Friday that it published a tactical desktop response playbook alongside a dedicated English edition. The decision to launch an English version follows a steady stream of visits to the foundation from public sector officials representing Japan, Mongolia, Ukraine, Romania and Iran. By codifying its emotional-labor protections into a multilanguage resource, Seoul aims to pioneer a standardized international framework for protecting public service personnel against caller hostility. Public call center workers in Korea have long faced steep emotional labor demands, often expected to endure extreme rudeness under the traditional mantle of public service. T

Jul 24, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Seoul launches playbook to help call centers deal with hostile callers
Companies

LG builds music studio for descendants of Ethiopian veterans of Korean War

During the darkest days of the 1950-53 Korean War, an elite contingent of Ethiopian soldiers traveled thousands of miles across oceans to defend a nation they had never known. The Kagnew Battalion — whose name translates to "destroyers of the enemy" — compiled a legendary record on the central front, engaging in 253 battles with no prisoners of war surrendered. Today, the blood shed by those 6,000 soldiers remains a fundamental bedrock of Korea's modern peace and prosperity. Seven decades later, that historical debt is being repaid through music. Korean electronics giant LG on Friday announced a comprehensive support program for the Kagnew Choir, a musical ensemble composed of third-generation descendants of the Ethiopian veterans. In collaboration with Korea's Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs and the nonprofit Warm Mind, LG will construct a state-of-the-art practice studio inside the Korean War Veterans Hall in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, equipped with soundproofing, audio systems and digital IT hardware. Since its founding in 2018, the choir had operated without

Jul 24, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
LG builds music studio for descendants of Ethiopian veterans of Korean War
South Korea

Yongsan District launches Seoul's 1st global education hub

Nestled in the center of Korea’s capital, Yongsan District has long played an important role in the nation’s international identity. Home to dozens of foreign embassies, leafy diplomatic enclaves and vibrant multicultural corridors, it serves as the country's default gateway to the world. Now, local policymakers are attempting to translate that distinct feature into a bold educational blueprint. Yongsan District officials on Friday formally accelerated their push to become Seoul’s first designated Special International Education Zone. The effort anchors on the newly established Yongsan Global Education Support Center, an ambitious hub designed to transform the district’s unique cosmopolitan fabric into an incubator for globally minded youth. The initiative represents a fundamental shift in how local governments approach public education. Rather than treating global engagement as an afterthought, Yongsan is embedding international governance, digital fluency and cultural literacy directly into the local curriculum. "Education is the most valuable investment we can make for future

Jul 24, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Yongsan District launches Seoul's 1st global education hub
Health

Preparing for next threat, Korea advances own mRNA vaccine

With the COVID-19 pandemic exposing the critical need for domestic vaccine production, Korea signaled Friday that it intends to be among the nations capable of addressing this necessity, advancing a homegrown messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidate into Phase II clinical trials. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and the National Institute of Health said pharmaceutical giant GC Biopharma submitted its Phase II trial plan to regulatory authorities. The filing marks a critical bridge between preliminary safety checks and the rigorous, large-scale human testing required to validate efficacy. For a nation that navigated the COVID-19 era largely reliant on Western biopharmaceutical giants, KDCA said the milestone represents not just routine medical progress but a calculated leap toward national self-reliance. At the heart of Seoul’s ambitious push is the mRNA Vaccine Development Support Program for Pandemic Preparedness. The initiative is built around the government's bid to engineer a versatile, domestic mRNA platform capable of producing a targeted vaccine within 200 d

Jul 24, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Preparing for next threat, Korea advances own mRNA vaccine
South Korea

Korea prepares its multicultural diaspora for military draft

Growing up in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City with one Korean parent, military service in a distant homeland often feels like a foreign obligation. Korea’s Military Manpower Administration set out to change that Thursday, opening its doors to a group of multicultural Korean-Vietnamese youth for an immersive trial of the nation's draft system. South Korea enforces a mandatory military service system requiring all able-bodied adult men to serve for 18 to 21 months to maintain defense readiness against North Korea. The new initiative brought about 20 youths and chaperones to military facilities in Daejeon and North Chungcheong Province, marking an expansion of government efforts to integrate the diaspora into that national defense apparatus. Under the banner of the "Overseas Citizens Military Service Connection Project," the program targets young dual-nationals and overseas residents, helping them navigate a complex civic duty every South Korean male must eventually face. Three participants born in 2007 — who reached the official draft age this year — found that the experience went beyond s

Jul 23, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Korea prepares its multicultural diaspora for military draft
South Korea

Woongjin Foundation holds summer mentoring for math scholars

The Woongjin Foundation held its annual summer mentoring session for math scholars at the Korea Press Center in Seoul on Thursday, marking the foundation's 18th anniversary. Established in 2008 by the Woongjin Group, the organization provides academic support to high school and university students across Korea. Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Woongjin Group Chairman Yoon Seok-keum and former Seoul National University President Oh Se-jung gave congratulatory remarks, with Oh speaking on the role of mathematicians and scientists in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). Mathematician Kim Min-hyong, a chair professor at the University of Edinburgh who has mentored Woongjin scholars for 11 years and recently proved a long-standing conjecture related to Fermat's equation, lectured on Diophantine equations, a category of polynomial equations central to number theory. Sociologist Song Ho-keun of Hallym University's Institute of Advanced Studies, meanwhile, spoke on reading and writing. Mathematician Baek Jin-eon, a Woongjin scholarship alumnus and fellow at the Korea Institute for

Jul 23, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Woongjin Foundation holds summer mentoring for math scholars
Health

Health care paradox: Korea achieves world-class longevity with fewest doctors among developed nations

Koreans are living longer, healthier lives than almost anywhere else in the industrialized world, even as the nation operates with one of the most severe shortages of practicing physicians among developed economies. According to new data released Thursday by the Ministry of Health and Welfare based on the OECD Health Statistics 2026, life expectancy in Korea reached a record high of 83.7 years. The figure places the nation comfortably above the OECD average of 81.2 years and just behind Switzerland, which leads the 38-member bloc at 84.2 years. The statistics reveal a health care ecosystem defined by extraordinary access and world-class preventive care, alongside mounting structural strains. Korea’s rate of avoidable mortality — deaths preventable through timely medical intervention or public health measures — stood at 139.0 per 100,000 people, far below the OECD benchmark of 208.8. Yet this longevity is supported by a strikingly lean clinical workforce. Korea recorded just 2.6 practicing physicians per 1,000 people (including practitioners of traditional Korean medicine), the seco

Jul 23, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Health care paradox: Korea achieves world-class longevity with fewest doctors among developed nations
Travel & Food

Korea's tourism boom surpasses prepandemic heights

Nearly seven years after global travel ground to a sudden halt, Korea’s inbound tourism market has not merely rebounded — it has decisively expanded past its historical benchmarks. According to data released Thursday by the Korea Tourism Organization, nearly 2 million foreign visitors arrived in June, marking a 23.1 percent increase compared to the same month last year. More significantly, the total of 1.99 million visitors represents a striking 35 percent surge over prepandemic levels recorded in June 2019, underscoring the enduring global appetite for Korean cultural exports and revamped travel infrastructure. The rally was heavily anchored by strong gains across key Asian and Western markets. Mainland China led the influx with nearly 650,000 arrivals — accounting for roughly one in three foreign visitors and jumping 36.8 percent from 2019 levels. Japan followed as the second-largest source market with 348,000 visitors, while Taiwan sent 223,000 travelers, an 88.4 percent leap over prepandemic figures. Western long-haul travel also demonstrated robust momentum, with U.S. arrival

Jul 23, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan
Korea's tourism boom surpasses prepandemic heights
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