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Jason Strother

Reporter Jason Strother is a freelance multimedia journalist who’s reported from both sides of the Korean peninsula since moving to Seoul in 2006.

Reporter Jason Strother is a freelance multimedia journalist who has reported from both sides of the Korean peninsula since moving to Seoul in 2006.He makes frequent work trips around Asia and has also filed from Brazil. He got his start in the business as a producer at a 24-hour cable news channel in the Bronx, but always wanted the life of a foreign correspondent.  He is also an adjunct professor of journalism at Montclair State University in his home state of New Jersey. 

Sea-level rise and storms made stronger by climate change threaten communities across coastal Bangladesh.

‘They forgot about me’: People with disabilities in Bangladesh face increased risk during natural disasters

Climate Change

Millions of people have migrated from villages in coastal Bangladesh to escape climate-related disasters, but people with disabilities often stay behind. This puts their lives in even greater danger as weather conditions become more severe, advocates say.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, Kim Jong-un speaks in a conference with chief secretaries of the city and county party committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, Saturday, March 6, 2020. 

North Korea to reopen its borders for the coronavirus vaccine

COVID-19
Kim Ju-won (left) and Park Sun-min (right) say same-sex couples are excluded from incentives to start families. 

South Korea’s baby boost for married couples excludes nontraditional families

Lifestyle & Belief
 Baek Jae-wook is a teenager with an autistic spectrum disorder and earned barista certifications from the Jayeondo Cafe in Incheon.

South Korean activists renew call for deinstitutionalizing people with disabilities amid coronavirus

A worker dressed in white protective gear disinfects as a precaution against the coronavirus at a café in Goyang, South Korea, Aug. 25, 2020.  

To quell COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea bans seating at big cafés

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with a white suit and black flat-top hair style, speaks at a conference table.

Typhoon Bavi strikes North Korea amid pandemic lockdown 

Natural disasters

Pyongyang has closed its borders, preventing aid groups from entering the country. Now, the regime’s ability to effectively respond to the disaster could be curtailed due to the absence of such organizations.   

A church with two steeples with green tips in the distance

South Koreans are blaming a controversial church for new COVID-19 outbreak

COVID-19

Health authorities say Sarang Jaeil Church and its outspoken pastor are at the epicenter of South Korea’s second-largest COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic started. About 3,400 of the church’s members have been tested and about 20% have contracted the coronavirus as of Thursday.

Hong Seo-yoon says travel is a great way to bring down barriers between people with disabilities and the nondisabled.

Bringing down barriers for travelers with disabilities in Korea

Lifestyle & Belief

A South Korean globe-trotter and wheelchair user advocates for more accessible tourism.

Mayor Park Won-soon speaks during an event at Seoul City Hall in Seoul, South Korea, July 8, 2020.

Seoul mayor’s progressive legacy called into question after his death

South Koreans are mourning the death of Park Won-soon, a prominent liberal politician and presidential hopeful. But the Seoul mayor’s apparent suicide coincides with reports that he was under investigation for sexual harassment.

A woman and a man hold signs and candles lit up in the dark outside

How violent protests in South Korea became a thing of the past

Protest

Protests in South Korea were once characterized by intense, often violent confrontations between protesters and police. Today, those kinds of fierce standoffs in the country seem to be a thing of the past.