South Korea's working hours dilemma As one of the four Asian tigers, South Korea maintained an exceptionally high growth rate and rapid industrialisation between the early 1960s and 1990s. Today, along with Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, this Asian Dragon has developed into an advanced and high-i...

Wonder Girls in Billboard Hot 100 Wonder Girls, one of South Korea's top girl groups, are the first Korean singers to enter the top 100 of main Billboard chart in 2009. After five months of being released in the United States, their single "Nobody" ranked 76th on the Billboard Hot 100, which is on...

Psy Puts South Korea on the Tourists' Map Trendy, posh and affluent, Gangnam is a popular district in South Korea for its Beverly Hills' lifestyle. This Seoul's postcode is not only the capital's hub for luxury shopping, fancy brunches and cocktails, but is also home to some of South Korea's music...

South Korea's Aerotropolis An aerotropolis is an urban plan in which the layout, infrastructure and economy is centred around an airport, existing as an airport city. It can also be defined as "a city planned around its airport, or more broadly, as a city less connected to tis land-bound neighbours...

Successful social marketing boosts global fascination for K-pop acts. The local social media market in Korea is relatively closed off from the outside world, which makes it problematic for non-Korean Internet or mobile users to search for anything related to K-pop in the English language. It is alm...

The Dark Side of Fame: Sasaeng Stalkers Since its beginnings, K-pop has awakened idol adoration in young fans that will fly long distance and spend a vast quantity of money on merchandise and concert tickets. Euphoria and dedication team up in a symbiotic relationship that economically sustains K-p...

South Korea: Random Facts Something that surprises the eye of the tourist when they visit Seoul is that it is a city of contrasts: the most avant-garde skyscrapers coexist in the same space with the most traditional oriental palaces. South Korea is one of the world's most-wired nations: out of a p...

K-pop star Rain in military faces punishment South Korean pop star Rain, who embarked on two years of military service in 2011, is facing possible military punishment for meeting with a famous Korean actress while on duty during his military service. According to South Korea's defence ministry, th...

Gangnam Style: Psy's Out-of-this-world Phenomenon Hey sexy lady... With his horse, reins and lasso, Psy has not only attracted that stylish girl but prompted masses to gallop across the planet and in space. Gangnam Style has become the first video to clock up more than one billion views on YouTube...

Psy will go it alone on "Gangnam Style" Follow Up It wasn't enough to create a worldwide global army of fans bewitched by the "Gangnam Style"; no, Psy is coming back for more expecting to follow the success of his popular hit, and he will be doing it alone. After his performance on "Dick Clark's N...

Yahoo withdraws from South Korea After 15 years of presence within the country, Search Engine giant Yahoo officially withdrew from South Korea on December 31st last year. A notification of the site's shutdown greeted users as they logged on to the page. This was a significant move as it is the fir...

South Korea's Smartphone Film Fest Accepting Submissions South Korea's Olleh Smartphone Film Festival –designed for shorts made on mobile devices- is now accepting submissions from overseas for its newly added international section. The Olleh Festival has added this new international section this...

Japan and South Korea Top Tweets Per Second For New Year As individuals report their daily activities on real time through social media, the networking service Twitter monitored a greeting-stimulating event at a global scale such as New Year's Eve. As clocks struck midnight in different time zones...

Mass dating event in Seoul called by Facebook Female, Male, Twenty-something, Thirty-something… they come in all shapes and sizes to flood the streets of Seoul to meet their soul mate. It wasn't Valentine's Day, and neither Aphrodite's mischiefs nor Cupid's arrows had anything to do with it. Instea...

Kpop Idols' Quotes "Even if my throat bleeds from singing and my body breaks from dancing, I will never give up the stage. Under the circumstances where you cannot enjoy yourself wholeheartedly, just scream and shout until your throat hurts." - TVXQ, Jaw Joong. "There is no shortcut in life." - Su...

The Influence of the Korean Wave The term Korean wave is used to describe the increase in the popularity of South Korean entertainment and culture starting in the 199s, in Asia, which has more recently spread to the rest of the world. This trend represents a rise in the international perceptibility...

South Korean Cuisine Korean traditional, early cuisine evolved through time in its complex interaction with environmental, political and cultural trends. This contemporary amalgam is largely based upon rice, vegetables and meats, at the time it is known for the number of side dishes (banchan) that...

The Phenomenon of K-Pop Dance In the past decade, South Korean pop music has taken the world by storm. Audiences across continents have been enchanted by Wonder Girls' sensual voices and dance moves, while PSY has created a massive troop of followers hooked to his catchy "Gangnam style" and his hor...