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South Korea

Korean pop culture inspires a Korean-language learning boom at US universities

The World's Global Classroom

The demand for language courses on US college campuses typically has reflected global shifts. Today, universities report that Korean-language classes fill up as soon as they add them and there are long wait-lists. And it’s all attributed to a surge of interest in Korean pop culture.

still from film of a man holding a hammer

Korean revenge film ‘Oldboy’ returns to theaters for its 20th anniversary

Seon Joo Oh cooks beef bulgogi during a recent cooking class in Hamilton High School's culinary room.

Hundreds of Milwaukeeans have learned Korean cooking from this woman

Food
"Timeless," by Tiger JK, feat RM.

‘Planet Hip Hop:’ The evolution of Korean rap

Planet Hip Hop
Pakistanis shops in a weekly pet market in Lahore, Pakistan, Nov. 13, 2022.

As Earth surpasses 8 billion people, ‘the planet can feed and sustain billions more,’ demographer says

Lifestyle
Multicolored displays of Korean marinated salads are a mainstay at Almaty’s Green Bazaar.

In Kazakhstan, timeless Korean recipes are loved and maintained

Food

In Almaty’s Green Bazaar, vendors sell a variety of foods that represent the culinary heritage of hundreds of thousands of Koreans who call Kazakhstan home.

Peter Møller, attorney and co-head of the Danish Korean Rights Group, holds documents at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022.

Danish Korean adoptees seek truth about their adoption circumstances

Justice

“We have reason to suspect that a lot of the information about us, at least the information we know, is incorrect,” said Peter Knudsen, who is one of 50 cosigners on an application filed to South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission last week to clarify their origins.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waves a national flag during a ceremony to celebrate Korean Liberation Day from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, at the presidential office square in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. 

Imagining empire: Part II

Critical State

Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter, takes a deep dive this week into the ways in which memorialization in South Korea is an act of present politics.

People watch a TV showing a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, May 7, 2022.

Japan gears up for evacuation drills amid spate of North Korean missile tests

The recent spate of North Korean missile tests is déjà vu for people in Japan.

A Uniper energy company coal-fired power plant and a BP refinery are seen beside a wind generator in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Jan. 16, 2020. 

Did the world ‘build back better’ since the start of the pandemic? Not so much. 

Environment

Two years into the pandemic, stimulus money around the world has largely fallen short in transforming the energy economy.