The Korea Times

Gochang's 7 treasures: Visit Korea’s renowned UNESCO county

GOCHANG COUNTY, North Jeolla Province — Gochang, a quiet county on Korea’s southwest coast that is the size of Seoul, calls itself a “UNESCO destination with seven crowns.” From World Heritage sites and a biosphere reserve to an Intangible Cultural Heritage and a Global Geopark, the county holds seven internationally recognized designations that serve as Gochang’s main attractions and anchor the county government’s push for sustainable tourism. It makes for an ideal weekend getaway for travelers seeking heritage-rich destinations in Korea. Prehistoric stone city: Gochang dolmen site Gochang’s UNESCO story begins in the Bronze Age landscape around Maesan village, home to the largest and most diverse cluster of dolmens in Korea. Of the 1,748 dolmens recorded across the county, more than 440 were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 for vividly illustrating the global “megalithic culture” of the second and first millennia B.C. These table-like stone tombs, alongside quarry remains that show how they were carved and raised, offer a rare insight into prehistori

Mar 26, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Gochang's 7 treasures: Visit Korea’s renowned UNESCO county

Travel & Food

Gochang looks to its past to build sustainable future

Gochang, a coastal county in North Jeolla Province long known for its dolmens and tidal flats, is positioning itself as a “sustainable world heritage city” and leveraging its cultural assets to confront depopulation and build a new model for rural development. The county holds multiple internationally recognized designations. Its dolmen, or stone tomb, site and tidal flats are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, while Ungok Wetland was designated under the Ramsar Convention in 2011. In addition, Gochang’s coastal area and the entire county have been recognized by UNESCO as a Global Geopark and Biosphere Reserve. Separately, in 2023, archives of the Donghak Peasant Revolution, which took place in the Gochang area in 1894, were added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The county is also deeply rooted in traditional Korean culture, including pansori (musical storytelling) and nongak (community band music, dance and ritual), both listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. In a recent written interview with The Korea Times, Gochang County Mayor Shim Deok-seob sa

Mar 24, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Gochang looks to its past to build sustainable future

K-pop

Taemin to become 1st K-pop solo artist featured at Grammy Museum

Taemin, member of K-pop boy band SHINee and soloist, will take center stage at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles next month with a new exhibition — the first ever devoted to a K-pop solo artist. Running from April 1 to May 25, “TAEMIN: Performer. Artist. Icon” will trace the 32-year-old singer’s evolution as one of contemporary music’s most dynamic performers, featuring an intimate selection of his signature stage ensembles and personal keepsakes. “Each performance is a story I share with my fans. These outfits and artifacts hold memories of those moments on stage,” Taemin said in a statement. “I hope visitors can feel the passion and love for music that has guided my journey. I’m truly honored to have my stage outfits displayed at the Grammy Museum.” The display will feature two of Taemin’s distinctive costumes — a red and black outfit from his “Ephemeral Gaze” world tour in 2024-25 and a white look worn during his “Veil” arena tour and on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in 2025 — along with his in-ear monitors, white stage-used microphone, official light

Mar 22, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Taemin to become 1st K-pop solo artist featured at Grammy Museum

Arts & Theater

Peek into Korea's plan for 2026 Venice Biennale art exhibition

In the world of art, the Venice Biennale has long held an unrivaled stature. Dubbed the “Olympics of the art world,” the festival showcases avant-garde, multidisciplinary works that engage with political and cultural issues from across the globe. Since the opening of the first Korean Pavilion in 1995, Korea has provided more than 20 contemporary artists with a platform to present their ideas to an international audience. Participants have included Lee Wan, siren eun young jung, Hwayeon Nam and Kimsooja. With the 61st International Art Exhibition scheduled to run from May 9 to Nov. 22, the Arts Council Korea last week unveiled the theme of this year’s Korean Pavilion, along with its two featured artists. According to artistic director Binna Choi, who will curate the exhibition, the pavilion will transform some of the most turbulent chapters of Korea’s recent political history into a meditation on what “liberation” means in an age of democratic crisis. Titled “Liberation Space: Fortress and Nest,” the exhibition takes the 2024 martial law crisis as its point of departure, w

Mar 20, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Peek into Korea's plan for 2026 Venice Biennale art exhibition

Arts & Theater

Life, death and diamonds: Damien Hirst debuts 1st Asia solo show at MMCA Seoul

Damien Hirst’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Asia has opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul, bringing the polarizing British artist’s signature explorations of life, death and belief to Korean audiences at a moment of intense debate over his relevance. Titled “Damien Hirst: Nothing Is True But Everything Is Possible,” the show is part of MMCA’s ongoing drive to introduce major figures of global contemporary art to the public and runs through June 28. It gathers some 50 works spanning four decades, from rarely seen early experiments to the controversial animal vitrines and recent paintings that continue to divide critics. MMCA officials acknowledged that choosing Hirst — a central figure of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement and a lightning rod for criticism over commercialization and spectacle — is a deliberate, even risky, move for a national museum. Yet, showing how Hirst persistently probes humanity’s bond with death, our drive to escape it, the money that exploits that urge and the systems that cloak such forces in

Mar 19, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Life, death and diamonds: Damien Hirst debuts 1st Asia solo show at MMCA Seoul

Music

Chamber music festival in Seoul highlights Mozart, young prodigies

This year's edition of the Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber Music will mark Mozart’s 270th birthday with a two-week long program dedicated to the composer and young prodigy musicians slated for April 21 to May 3 in Seo Founded in 2006 by violinist and artistic director Kang Dong-suk in partnership with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the festival has grown into one of the city’s representative arts events, serving as a launchpad for young virtuosos and challenging the notion that chamber music is difficult. Titled “Mozart and Prodigies,” the festival offers 13 concerts with a record lineup of 82 artists from Korea and abroad. Instead of simply repeating Mozart's greatest hits, the musicians are expected to explore two core keywords, “genius” and “beginnings.” The opening concert on April 21 pairs Mozart’s “String Quintet No. 5” with works by Camille Saint-Saens, Claude Debussy and Cesar Franck, all of whom are celebrated as prodigies or early bloomers in French music history. A subsequent concert on April 22 will focus on early works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schu

Mar 17, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Chamber music festival in Seoul highlights Mozart, young prodigies

Travel & Food

RM’s Seoul art trail: Museum and gallery guide for ARMY visiting during BTS comeback

For BTS fans who also love art, a trip to Seoul shouldn’t be just about watching BTS live on Saturday. Several members — particularly RM — have expressed a deep appreciation for art and visiting the galleries he has frequented can make the trip even more memorable. BTS leader RM has spent years building one of Korea’s most talked about relationships with the art world. His passion for art grew not from formal study but from experiences during life on tour. RM’s love of art has been quite public. He has visited museums and galleries and posted photos of his visits on social media. These posts have sparked a wave of gallery pilgrimages by fans, now known as the “Namjoon Tour” or “RM Tour,” in which ARMY members travel to the same galleries and recreate his photos. The Korea Art Market 2025 report named RM one of the 20 most influential figures in the Korean art market, describing him as a “passionate art collector and cultural influencer.” Last year, RM also announced that he will curate his first museum exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, titled “

Mar 17, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

RM’s Seoul art trail: Museum and gallery guide for ARMY visiting during BTS comeback

Society

Ex-station chief’s testimony at Itaewon disaster hearing sparks fury from bereaved families

The former Itaewon Station chief said during an investigative hearing Friday that she would still not have ordered trains to skip Itaewon Station on the night of the 2022 Halloween crowd crush, drawing fury from bereaved families who accused her of abetting the disaster that killed 159 people. On the second day of fact-finding hearings by the National Commission for the Investigation of the Oct. 29 Itaewon Disaster in Seoul, questioning centered on Song Eun-young’s decision not to request trains skip Itaewon Station that night as well as Yongsan District Office’s failure to address illegal structures near the narrow alley where the crowd crush happened. Asked whether she would make the same choice again under identical circumstances, Song replied, “Yes, that’s right,” prompting strong reactions from families in the audience. Some yelled, “If you stay in the post, people will die again,” and “What have you done for three years?” as the hearing briefly grew chaotic. Song, who now holds a different post with Seoul Metro, defended her decision by arguing station staff had

Mar 13, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Ex-station chief’s testimony at Itaewon disaster hearing sparks fury from bereaved families

Society

Women head chefs now helm 1 in 10 Michelin-starred restaurants in Korea

Women head chefs now lead 1 in 10 Michelin-starred restaurants in Korea, marking a symbolic crack in the industry’s long-standing glass ceiling even as stark gender gaps persist worldwide. The newly released Michelin Guide Seoul and Busan 2026 lists a record 46 starred restaurants, of which five are helmed by women, or about 10.9 percent, up from three out of 40 last year. That makes 2026 the first year, based on available data, that women have crossed the 10 percent threshold among Korea’s Michelin-starred chefs. At the global level, women remain badly outnumbered: A 2022 analysis of 2,286 Michelin-starred restaurants in 16 countries found only about 6 percent were led by women, with the figure still hovering between 5 and 10 percent in 2025. Michelin’s own leadership has publicly acknowledged the imbalance. “Where are the women? Too few women are leading kitchens, despite the fact that more and more of them are working in kitchens,” international director Gwendal Poullennec said at the 2024 French edition of the ceremony, calling it “a reality we deplore.” For every woman

Mar 13, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Women head chefs now helm 1 in 10 Michelin-starred restaurants in Korea

Society

Itaewon tragedy hearing turns emotional as survivor recounts horror, police trade blame

The long-awaited public inquiry in the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush opened Thursday with tearful testimony from survivors and heated exchanges between police officials accused of mishandling emergency calls on the night of the disaster. The hearing came more than three years after the 2022 tragedy, following prolonged political gridlock, disputes over accountability and repeated delays in forming an independent investigative body. The National Commission for the Investigation of the Oct. 29 Itaewon Disaster, the special fact-finding group investigating the tragedy, began the first of two days of hearings in central Seoul. The session drew bereaved families and witnesses whose testimonies shed new light on a chain of failures preceding the crowd surge, resulting in the deaths of 159 people during Halloween celebrations. Tears filled the hall as Min Seung-ho, a survivor of the events, recounted the moments before the crowd crush in a narrow alley in Itaewon turned fatal. “From 10 to 11 p.m., there were at least three big pushes,” Min recalled. “No one was intentionally shoving, but peopl

Mar 12, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Lee Hae-rin

Read more

Gochang's 7 treasures: Visit Korea’s renowned UNESCO county

Gochang looks to its past to build sustainable future

Taemin to become 1st K-pop solo artist featured at Grammy Museum

Peek into Korea's plan for 2026 Venice Biennale art exhibition

Life, death and diamonds: Damien Hirst debuts 1st Asia solo show at MMCA Seoul

Chamber music festival in Seoul highlights Mozart, young prodigies

RM’s Seoul art trail: Museum and gallery guide for ARMY visiting during BTS comeback

Ex-station chief’s testimony at Itaewon disaster hearing sparks fury from bereaved families

Women head chefs now helm 1 in 10 Michelin-starred restaurants in Korea

Itaewon tragedy hearing turns emotional as survivor recounts horror, police trade blame

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