The Korea Times

Korea launches $2.2 mil. fund to boost indie K-pop labels

The Korean government is stepping in to fortify the "backbone" of the K-pop industry, launching a new initiative aimed at helping midsized and small music agencies expand globally. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, alongside the Korea Creative Content Agency, said Tuesday they selected 10 indie K-pop groups for the inaugural "Global Leap Forward Support" project. Under the initiative, each selected agency will receive up to 300 million won ($218,000) annually for up to three years to finance international promotions, music videos and overseas tours. The intervention comes amid growing concerns over market polarization. While global K-pop exports surged 32.4 percent year-on-year in 2025, the market remains heavily dominated by a handful of conglomerate-backed "Big Four" entertainment giants. According to government data, major conglomerates spent an average of 43.1 billion won on music production in 2023, compared to a meager 1.49 billion won on average for smaller agencies. Furthermore, major label acts performed abroad 20 times more frequently than their indie counterparts. T

Jun 16, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

K-pop

RIIZE doubles down on performance for highly anticipated return

K-pop group RIIZE returned Monday with its second mini album, "II," presenting a sharper, more self-assured sound that the members say reflects months of rehearsal and rising confidence on stage. In a distributed interview ahead of the release, the SM Entertainment group described the title track, "Do Your Dance," as a statement meant to be felt rather than interpreted. Below is an edited Q&A with the six-member group. Q. How does it feel to make a comeback? Wonbin: The album is filled with strong songs, and we feel confident returning to the stage. We want to show our music through performance rather than words. Sohee: It has been seven months since our last comeback, and we’re really thankful to fans for waiting. We’re confident in this album and hope many people enjoy it. Q. How would you describe “II”? Sohee: It’s a fun album from start to finish. I hope that feeling of enjoyment reaches fans as well. Anton: It represents a shift into a more active phase for RIIZE, moving from thinking to doing. Eunseok: It feels like a box of many colors, with each track showing a different sty

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

RIIZE doubles down on performance for highly anticipated return

Sports

Gwanghwamun turns into stadium as Jongno hosts epic World Cup gatherings

In the heart of Seoul, one of Korea’s most iconic civic spaces is being recast as an open-air stadium, where thousands of fans are expected to gather to watch World Cup qualifiers together on a screen that normally carries advertising and cultural content. Jongno District said Monday that it will host three large-scale street cheering events at Gwanghwamun Square on June 19 and June 25, using the KT WEST digital display in Gwanghwamun Square’s advertising zone to broadcast matches featuring Korea’s national team live. The district said the kickoff event, held on Friday, marked the first time sports content was transmitted through the Gwanghwamun Square advertising zone, a system typically reserved for commercial and cultural media. Officials said the square and adjacent public areas, including Yukjo Madang and Nori Madang, will function as a unified viewing zone where fans can join to watch the games. The broadcasts will be accompanied by K-pop performances, artificial intelligence-driven stage effects and promotional giveaways, as the district seeks to turn matches into broader cu

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

Gwanghwamun turns into stadium as Jongno hosts epic World Cup gatherings

Korean Heritage

Korea brings traditional arts to Busan stage for global heritage audience

As the southern port city of Busan prepares to host the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting next month, Korean cultural officials are moving aggressively to position the summit as a premier international stage for the country’s performing arts. Rather than presenting traditional heritage as static museum artifacts, a pair of major performance initiatives aims to prove that Korea's ancient performance rituals remain a dynamic, living commodity. The Cultural Heritage Administration announced Monday a dual-track cultural blitz designed to captivate arriving foreign diplomats and international dignitaries. The centerpiece of the campaign, titled “Intangible Heritage Festival in Busan,” will run from July 20 to 29 at the BEXCO convention center. The festival breaks new ground for the industry by introducing the inaugural "Intangible Heritage Performance Art Market," a trade-fair model featuring 26 showcases aimed at establishing commercial distribution networks for traditional Korean performing arts both domestically and abroad. The festival’s artistic centerpiece is "Sanhwab

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

Korea brings traditional arts to Busan stage for global heritage audience

South Korea

Seoul showcases its drinking water in Singapore

Municipal governments have long struggled with a persistent, deeply psychological public relations hurdle: convincing urban residents that the water flowing from their kitchen taps is genuinely safe to drink. Seoul is taking its domestic solution to that problem onto the global stage, using a major international exposition here to market its "Arisu" brand tap water while scouting for artificial intelligence (AI) to manage its future infrastructure. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday that it will anchor a prominent "Seoul Water" promotional pavilion at the Singapore International Water Week Water Expo, which runs Tuesday through Thursday at the Marina Bay Sands convention complex. The exhibition is among the most influential industry fixtures in Southeast Asia, expected to draw more than 1,100 companies and roughly 20,000 public and private sector participants from over 100 countries. For Seoul officials, the gathering offers a high-profile forum to elevate the international prestige of Arisu. Korea has spent years aggressively upgrading its treatment facilities and running p

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

Seoul showcases its drinking water in Singapore

Travel & Food

Korea offers bus discounts to move foreign tourists beyond Seoul

For the millions of foreign tourists who visit Korea each year, the boundaries of vacations are often defined by the limits of the capital's subway system. Venturing into the provinces has long meant confronting a fragmented, deeply analog intercity bus network whose digital reservation platforms remain largely inaccessible to holders of foreign passports and overseas credit cards. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with the Korea Tourism Organization, announced a coordinated monthlong campaign on Monday to dismantle these transit barriers. Partnering with international travel booking platform Klook and fintech firm Hanpass, the government will subsidize tickets and provide digital perks from June 15 to July 14 to encourage independent travelers to explore the country's rural interior. The initiative addresses a persistent bottleneck in Korea's tourism infrastructure. While the country fully integrated international credit card processing at bus terminals in July 2024, the government notes that awareness of English-language online booking channels remains critically low

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

Korea offers bus discounts to move foreign tourists beyond Seoul

Others

Honoring doctor who led Korea’s nurses to Germany

In the mid-1960s, Korea was a nation reeling from the devastation of war, short on foreign currency and desperate for economic survival. Thousands of miles away, West Germany was experiencing its postwar Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle), but faced a crippling shortage of medical labor. The man who bridged that gap was Lee Su-kil, a pediatrician whose structural legacy is being reexamined six decades later. The Overseas Koreans Agency on Monday named Lee (1928-2023) its "Overseas Korean of the Month" for June, marking the 60th anniversary of the historic migration he single-handedly orchestrated. While working at Mainz University Hospital in Germany in the early 1960s, Lee recognized an opportunity to simultaneously alleviate Germany’s nursing shortage and provide economic relief to his homeland. In 1965, operating largely on his own initiative, he mailed letters to roughly 10 German hospitals to gauge their willingness to hire Korean staff, subsequently coordinating the logistics with the Korean government. His efforts bore fruit in 1966, when an initial cohort of 128 Korean nurses

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

Honoring doctor who led Korea’s nurses to Germany

Companies

KT rolls out AI store assistant to break language barriers for int'l customers

For foreign nationals and travelers in Korea, setting up a mobile phone plan has long been a notorious bureaucratic gauntlet, complicated by rigid registration laws and a steep language barrier. KT Corp., one of the country’s dominant telecommunications carriers, is betting that artificial intelligence (AI) can solve this persistent friction point at the retail counter. The company said Monday that it is introducing an "AI Multilingual Counselor" across its retail stores, a first for the Korean telecom industry. Developed to assist foreign customers in their native tongues, the digital assistant handles inquiries regarding complex pricing structures, data plans, contract terms and corporate membership perks. The system launches with support for more than 20 languages, including English, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. The initiative is part of a broader push by Korean conglomerates to apply AI in customer-facing operations, a trend the industry terms "AI transformation." Rather than replacing human capital, the digital counselors are designed to act as on-floor co-pilots. At high-traff

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

KT rolls out AI store assistant to break language barriers for int'l customers

Companies

SK Plasma builds plant in Turkey to boost drug self-sufficiency

SK Plasma has broken ground on a plasma-derived therapeutics manufacturing plant in Turkey, moving a long-planned project to localize production of critical medicines into the execution phase. The company said Monday that it held a groundbreaking ceremony at the plant site in Çubuk, Ankara, through Proturk, a joint venture established with the Turkish Red Crescent. Under the project, Proturk will build a facility with annual plasma-processing capacity of 600,000 liters and a total floor area of about 36,000 square meters. The plant is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2028, with commercial production targeted for 2030. The facility is expected to produce albumin, intravenous immunoglobulin and factor VIII products, creating a domestic production base for plasma-derived medicines that Turkey has largely relied on imports to obtain. The project follows a shareholder agreement signed in November between SK Plasma and the Turkish Red Crescent covering construction of the plant and establishment of the joint venture. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in the cerem

Jun 15, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

SK Plasma builds plant in Turkey to boost drug self-sufficiency

Korean Heritage

Han River to host Seoul’s annual traditional music festival for 1st time

Traditional Korean music will trade palace courtyards and concert halls for the banks of the Han River this year as Seoul moves its annual “gugak,” Korean traditional music, festival to one of the city’s busiest public spaces in a bid to reach a broader audience. The eighth Seoul Gugak Festival will be held Friday at Moonlight Square in Banpo Hangang Park, marking the first time the event has taken place along the river. Organizers said the festival, themed “Gugak Awakens Seoul,” will showcase a wide spectrum of Korean traditional music, from performances by master musicians to genre-blending acts that combine gugak with rock, dance and contemporary performance art. The event will run from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and feature a main concert stage, community performances and a range of hands-on cultural programs. The evening’s headline performances include a collaboration between Lastreet Crew and a geomungo sextet, a multimedia production by Twohands that blends traditional shamanic music with media art and appearances by master performers Cho Young-sook and Lee Tae-baek. The lineup

Jun 12, 2026By Lee Kyung-min

Lee Kyung-min

Read more

Korea launches $2.2 mil. fund to boost indie K-pop labels

RIIZE doubles down on performance for highly anticipated return

Gwanghwamun turns into stadium as Jongno hosts epic World Cup gatherings

Korea brings traditional arts to Busan stage for global heritage audience

Seoul showcases its drinking water in Singapore

Korea offers bus discounts to move foreign tourists beyond Seoul

Honoring doctor who led Korea’s nurses to Germany

KT rolls out AI store assistant to break language barriers for int'l customers

SK Plasma builds plant in Turkey to boost drug self-sufficiency

Han River to host Seoul’s annual traditional music festival for 1st time

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