Korea Times K-Culture Reporter
Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Organizers of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF), a major annual LGBTQ festival, are highly likely to be denied the use of Seoul Plaza for this year's event. The city government disapproved the event last year as well.
Local governments, renowned for hosting iconic flower festivals every spring, find themselves grappling with flowerless venues this year.
The Chunhyang Festival of Namwon, North Jeolla Province, will include foreign nationals in its annual beauty contest for the first time, as a trial initiative to elevate the local tradition to a global scale. The aim is to attract 1 million visitors, both domestic and foreign, to the event this year.
Cars are blanketed with thick snow at a parking lot in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, Wednesday. The eastern mountainous region saw over 20 centimeters of heavy snowfall on the spring equinox, which marks the first day of spring with the sun crossing the Earth's equator. Yonhap
Korean fans are displaying unparalleled adoration and respect for Shohei Ohtani, a U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) star hailing from neighboring Japan, a country often viewed as a sports rival.
Korean archer An San, who won three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan in 2021, caused a stir with an online post that described a Japanese-themed restaurant as a “traitor to the nation.” The restaurant owner accused the Olympian’s remark of wrongly branding his business as being a pro-Japanese collaborator.
Marriage immigrant women in Korea and a Philippine-born naturalized Korean lawmaker called for substantial measures to guarantee their political participation to better represent 2.5 million people from multicultural backgrounds.
The southern resort island of Jeju is pushing to impose a so-called eco-tourism tax on visitors to curb the adverse effects of tourism such as environmental damage.
The government has selected three local festivals — Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival, Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival and Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival — to develop into global tourism events as part of its three-year project aimed at doubling the number of inbound visitors and accelerating the regional economy.
Spring is around the corner and Changdeok Palace, arguably the most beautiful royal palace in Seoul, has its windows and doors flung open to welcome the springtime breeze and natural light into the historic building after it remained shut throughout winter.