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Kim Se-jeong

Korea Times K-Culture Reporter

I am covering trend, food and fashion. Previously, I covered diplomacy, city, environment and unification.

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Books

Korea Times Translation Awards recognize voices bridging Korean literature with world

The Korea Times celebrated five literary translators who won its 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards during a ceremony at Kyobo Building in central Seoul, Tuesday. This year’s contest, the first since author Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in literature win, saw a surge in entries compared to previous editions. Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KB Financial Group, the awards presented two grand prizes, two commendation awards and the Kevin O'Rourke Prize. The award ceremony was followed by a book talk featuring best-selling author Jang Ryu-jin and Sean Lin Halbert. The two who discussed the recently published English translation of Jang’s novel "To the Moon" by Halbert, who himself had won the Grand Prize from The Korea Times' Literature Translation Awards in 2018. “When this award was first established in the 1970s, Korea was still a small country in Asia, distant from global attention. However, we have now become an advanced economy that commands global interest, and cultural phenomena beginning with the letter K — K-pop and K-drama — have ca

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
Korea Times Translation Awards recognize voices bridging Korean literature with world
  • 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Judges' report
Travel & Food

Fried kimchi, Hwangnam bread: Korean food that won APEC delegates' hearts

Korea’s gastro-diplomacy was in full swing during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, last week. The Korean government mobilized all available resources to please heads of states and delegates from Asia, the Americas and beyond. The official gala dinner on Friday evening drew much public and media attention, as Korean American star chef Edward Lee took charge of the menu. Yet, beyond the gala, several other Korean dishes — from time-honored classics to simple baked goods — impressed visitors with their taste and presentation. Fried kimchi Fried kimchi — a stir-fried version of Korea’s signature fermented cabbage — appealed to Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and members of the United Arab Emirates legation. Their fondness was so great that they asked to take some home and the host hotel — Ananti Cove in Busan — presented the delegation with vacuum-packed bottles of fried kimchi as a gift. According to Korean reports, some delegates even asked a hotel employee for the

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
Fried kimchi, Hwangnam bread: Korean food that won APEC delegates' hearts
Books

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Grand Prize winner Sooj Heo

As a visual artist based in Germany, Sooj Heo, the Grand Prize winner in the poetry category, is a devoted poetry lover who discovered the beauty of language and translation while rendering Korean poems for her friends who couldn't read the language. “I wanted to share the ones I loved with friends who could not read Korean, so I used Google Translate’s camera feature. The mistranslations fascinated me — how words slip, meanings deform and reassemble. That curiosity led me to start translating myself, to see if I could bring the poem’s voice across with more care and clarity,” she recalled. Heo is especially drawn to Korean women poets born in the 1950s and '60s, with Kim Eon-hee (1953-), Choi Seung-ja (1952-), Kim Hye-soon (1955-) and Yi Yeon-ju (1953-92) among her favorites. “Their poems carry the suppressed tension of living as talented women in a patriarchal culture, which I find powerful and haunting,” the winner said. Asked what motivated her to select Pak Seo-won’s poems, Heo said it happened by chance. “I was looking for poems with the same intensity and discover

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Grand Prize winner Sooj Heo
Books

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Commendation Award winner Adelle Wee Xing Min

Among the five winners of the 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, Adelle Wee Xing Min stands out for her singular focus and dedication to literary translation. A Singaporean student at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s (LTI Korea) Translation Academy in Seoul, Wee is an aspiring literary translator. Before entering the academy, she earned her master’s degree in Korean-English translation from Ewha Womans University, following an undergraduate degree in linguistics. Her dream of becoming a literary translator began modestly through fan translation work in the K-pop community. “I actually started out doing fansubs and translating social media posts for an idol group I really liked,” Wee recalled. “There were only a couple of fan translators because the fan base was really small, and fans would have to wait hours and sometimes days before they could read an accurate English translation. So I started subtitling and translating their content to try to shorten the wait time and bridge the gap between non-Korean-speaking fans and the idols they loved so muc

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Commendation Award winner Adelle Wee Xing Min
  • 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Commendation Award: Aeon
Books

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Kevin O’Rourke Prize winner Peace Lee

Born to Christian missionary parents and raised across multiple countries, Peace Lee, winner of this year's Kevin O’Rourke Prize, grew up with a keen sense of language and translation. “By the time I entered college, I’d already moved more than 20 times. My parents were missionaries, so we left Korea when I was 5 and settled in the Philippines, where I first became aware of the multiplicity of languages. English, Tagalog, regional dialects and even traces of Spanish coexisted in the same air,” the Korean American said. “I remember being 7, fascinated that there were so many ways to say something as simple as ‘eight.’ That early wonder shaped how I came to see the world.” Currently residing in the U.S., Lee discovered the beauty of translation while studying at a theological seminary, where she was training to become a preacher and teacher of homiletics. “I still remember translating a homiletics article from Korean to English during graduate school. Inside it was a single literary quotation — and the joy of translating that one passage lit something in me. I thought,

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O’Rourke Prize winner Peace Lee
  • 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Kevin O’Rourke Prize: Iron and Flesh
Books

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Grand Prize winner Diana Akhmetova

The Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards organized by The Korea Times have long been exclusive to those who speak Korean or English natively — sometimes both. This year, however, the winner broke that mold. Born in Russia, Diana Akhmetova’s mother tongues are Tatar, the language of the Tatar ethnic group, and Russian. She began learning English at the age of 6 and Korean at 14. Now residing in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, she studies tourism management at Kongju National University. Akhmetova said she was drawn to Kim Ji-yeon’s novel "The Things that Go By" because of its focus on nontraditional relationships. “What drew me to 'The Things that Go By' were the themes it explores. Nontraditional relationships are still considered taboo by many, which often silences the real struggles faced by those who don’t fit into conventional norms,” she said. The story follows the love between two women. “This story addresses issues of self-acceptance, the search for one’s place in the world, the process of letting go of the past and the courage it takes to trust another pe

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Grand Prize winner Diana Akhmetova
Books

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Commendation Award winner Ketevani Barbakadze

Born in Georgia, Ketevani Barbakadze, winner of this year's Commendation Prize in poetry section, grew up an avid reader and writer with a deep interest in translation. “Whenever I read a translated poem that moved me, I would wonder: How would this line feel in the breath of its own language? How much of the poet’s sincerity was conveyed, and how much remained behind? Not because the translator did a poor job, but because every language expresses emotion in its own unique way — and something is always lost in crossing from one to another,” she said. As a child, she was also fascinated by the mythologies of different cultures — a curiosity that eventually led her to discover Korea and the rich shamanic traditions of Jeju Island. “In school, our world history curriculum placed a strong emphasis on Greek mythology but offered almost nothing about East Asian traditions,” she recalled. “As part of a freshman project for my world history course, I decided to explore that missing half of the world’s imagination. That search led me to Jeju Island and its mythology — a place

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award winner Ketevani Barbakadze
  • 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Commendation Award: Words Close to the Heart
K-pop

BTS’ Jung Kook spotted dining alone at Seoul barbecue restaurant

BTS member Jung Kook was spotted earlier this week enjoying a meal alone at a barbecue restaurant in Seoul, drawing attention from fans online. On Wednesday, several photos and videos shared on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed Jung Kook eating alone, without his manager or staff. In one clip, the K-pop star appears fully immersed in his meal, mixing his rice without paying attention to onlookers. No one else was seated at his table. Additional images showed Jung Kook paying for his food after finishing and warmly posing for photos with fans who approached him on the street. Jung Kook is well known for his love of food and cooking. He has previously gone viral for creating and sharing his own recipes with fans, including “bulguri,” a combination of spicy chicken ramen and Neoguri brand instant noodles, and “bul-mayo deulgireum makguksu,” a cold buckwheat noodle dish mixed with perilla oil, spicy sauce, dried seaweed flakes and egg yolk.

Oct 31, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
BTS’ Jung Kook spotted dining alone at Seoul barbecue restaurant
Korean Heritage

Museum without walls: Gyeongju’s journey from Silla capital to global stage

As leaders, delegates and visitors prepare to gather in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting on Friday and Saturday, few places in Korea embody the nation’s long history more vividly than the host city. Often called “a museum without walls,” Gyeongju served as the capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C-A.D. 935) through the Unified Silla era for nearly a thousand years. Its landscape remains heavily dotted with tombs, temples, historic buildings and ruins that bring that distant era to life. In this way, Gyeongju is often compared to ancient Athens or Rome — cities where open-air ruins, sacred monuments and royal tombs are part of the everyday landscape, connecting visitors directly with the past. Hosting the APEC summit in the city considered the cradle of the Silla Kingdom places global dialogue within the context of Korea’s historical roots, offering a reminder that today’s innovation and diplomacy stand on centuries of cultural legacy. Center of Silla’s golden age Gyeongju’s location in a natural basin m

Oct 24, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
Museum without walls: Gyeongju’s journey from Silla capital to global stage
Arts & Theater

K-pop pioneer Kim Wan-sun finds solace in art

In 1986, at the age of 17, Kim Wan-sun debuted with her first album “Tonight,” captivating audiences with her sensual dance moves and bold, provocative images. Over the next five years, she dominated Korea's pop music scene, becoming the first female singer to reach such heights in the industry. Between 1987 and 1991, she was named Singer of the Year annually, earning the nickname “Korea’s Madonna.” Beyond Korea, Kim’s music and performances attracted fans in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. She found particular success in Taiwan, where her albums sold more than 500,000 copies — making her one of the early forerunners of K-pop. Nearly 40 years after the height of her fame, Kim has returned — not to the stage, but to the canvas. She is currently presenting a joint exhibition titled “Art Beyond Fame,” with rock musician and former Sanullim member Kim Chang-hoon, at Gallery Marie in Seoul’s Jongno District, featuring nine self-portraits. Except for one full-body portrait displayed in the gallery's entrance, most of her paintings depict herself from the side or back, often

Oct 23, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
K-pop pioneer Kim Wan-sun finds solace in art
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