Jane Newman spent her evenings watching K-dramas on her recliner during the pandemic lockdowns. She didn't expect they'd spark a curiosity about South Korea that would eventually lead her to move there and start over.
A trial got underway in Seoul last week for 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of participating in online scam operations in Cambodia. Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 nationals from Cambodia where officials estimate upwards of 1,000 of its citizens are working either "voluntarily or involuntarily" in scam compounds. The repatriation effort follows public outrage over the death of a South Korean college student, who was reportedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam center.
My identity, my immediate family, my extended family, everything was erased,' says adoptee Ju-rye Hwang. Sydney, Australia Ju-rye Hwang grew up assuming her parents in South Korea were dead and that she was alone in the world after being adopted to North America at about six years of age. That was until a phone call from a journalist in Seoul turned her world upside down.
For 75 years, the US has wielded wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces. The set-up has its origins in the Korean War which erupted in 1950 and largely ended with the truce of 1953. In simple terms, Seoul can command its troops only as long as there is no open conflict, and despite South Korean leadership taking on more and more responsibility in the intervening decades, a major breakout of hostilities would still see Washington take command.
The headpiece Mr. Trump received is a replica of one of six gold crowns excavated from Gyeongju's royal tombs, alongside gilded jewelry, belts and other ornaments. The crown was excavated in 1973 from a tomb, known as the Cheonmachong, that researchers believe belonged to the 21st or 22nd Silla king. It is the "largest and most extravagant" of the six crowns, a spokesman for Mr. Lee told Mr. Trump during the ceremony.
As the world races to stay ahead in the deep tech revolution - from AI and semiconductors to quantum computing - innovation has become the new currency of power. For many companies, that pressure has translated into heavier workloads and more intense work cultures. Yet they face a real dilemma: they can't simply ease up while competitors across the globe push harder to win.
South Korea is nearing a decision on whether to allow Google and Apple to export high-resolution geographic map data to servers outside the country. The detailed maps, which use a 1:5,000 scale, would show streets, buildings, and alleyways in far greater detail than currently available on these platforms. However, several regulatory and security hurdles remain unresolved. Earlier this week, South Korea's National Assembly Defense Committee held a parliamentary audit of Google Korea.
With no clear government agency acting as 'first responder' following a cyberattack, the country's cyber defenses are struggling to keep pace with its digital ambitions. "The government's approach to cybersecurity remains largely reactive, treating it as a crisis management issue rather than as critical national infrastructure," Brian Pak, the chief executive of Seoul-based cybersecurity firm Theori, told TechCrunch.
Eighteen years ago, people didn't even know the name of this ingredient, says 58-year-old Gil Sa-hyeon, holding up a cluster of dried brownish stems. Now it's everywhere. His shop, Joseon Yakcho, sits in the heart of Seoul's Yangnyeongsi Market, South Korea's largest traditional medicinal herb market, its streets lined with shops displaying buckets of herbs such as liquorice root and cinnamon bark that spill on to the pavements, filling the air with their distinct, earthy aroma.
The North Korean vessel crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) near the South Korean border island of Baengnyeong at about 5am local time on Friday (20:00 GMT) and remained on the southern side of the maritime frontier for an hour while also advancing up to 5km (3.1 miles) south of the demarcation line, South Korea's military said. Our military broadcasted a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean merchant ship retreated from our territorial waters, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
Less than four months after being elected, South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung has announced an ambitious campaign to reform the constitution in way which would allow future presidents to serve two consecutive four-year terms instead of stepping down after a single five-year stint. The initiative is at the top of the administration's 123-item policy agenda. Proponents say the reform would also synchronize presidential elections with votes for members of the National Assembly in order to encourage continuity of policies and greater responsibility while in office.
South Korea's negotiations with the U.S. on a trade deal to lower tariffs have stalled amid concerns over the foreign exchange implications of a $350 billion investment fund, part of an agreement reached with President Donald Trump in July. What has Japan agreed to? South Korean officials, who had argued that the package would mostly comprise loans and guarantees with limited direct investment, said last week they could not accept terms similar to those of a $550 billion investment package finalised this month by Japan.
South Korea's government has said it will launch an investigation into whether human rights violations were committed when hundreds of its citizens were detained in a US immigration raid. About 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery factory in the US state of Georgia on 4 September. The raid was the largest single-site operation conducted since the US president, Donald Trump, launched a sweeping immigration crackdown.
On Tuesday, Apple announced its newest product, the iPhone 17, featuring new colors, better cameras, and a slim variation of the worst almond-mom dreams. To flaunt the phone's svelte figure, Apple released a bunch of different ads displaying the phone mid-air, side-by-side with other objects, and, in some cases, being pinched by two fingers. Because nothing texts as good as skinny feels.
Severance is the first hospital in South Korea to trial a four-day workweek, aiming to improve the work-life balance of its staff. Under the program, introduced in 2023 following an agreement between labour and management, some hospital employees are allowed to take three days off per week in exchange for a 10 percent reduction in salary. Staff take turns participating in six-month rotations, after which they return to a five-day week.
At the 2022 World Cup, South Korea was one of just four nations, along with Brazil, Argentina and Saudi Arabia, not to have a naturalized player in its squad. That is unlikely to be the case in the 2026 World Cup as the East Asian nation selected a foreign-born male player in August for the first time in its history. It is a move that could be more significant off the pitch than on it.
My Korean language proficiency was still very low then, and I worried that communicating would be difficult. But I was surprised that people were friendly and eager to help, even though I didn't speak Korean. At the same time, I saw that Korean society was super, super competitive. People lined up in the university libraries, sat on the benches, and studied so hard. They called it "pali-pali"- quick-quick.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
As per Tesla Korea, those who have reserved the Cybertruck could log into their Tesla account to confirm their order. Customers could confirm their orders from August 29, 2025 to September 4, 2025. New orders for the Cybertruck will start on September 5, 2025.
