https://www.scmp.com/rss/521130/feed Lee Seung-ku is a journalist covering South Korea's business, politics and society for various publications around the world. He spent his childhood in the Middle East, before returning to Seoul in 2018. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku In a sunlit flat in southern Seoul, 25-year-old Cho Sang-hun sits before a glowing laptop, his future scrolling past in endless columns of job listings. He is the product of South Korea’s finest schools, but as he weighs his future options uncertainty clouds his career search – as it does for the millions of young people across Asia who are quietly rewriting the rules of ambition. “I can’t just go anywhere,” Cho said. “I have to comprehensively judge what job best suits me.” Cho speaks with the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3327814/asias-gen-z-rejects-rat-race-chinas-let-it-rot-just-rested-koreans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3327814/asias-gen-z-rejects-rat-race-chinas-let-it-rot-just-rested-koreans?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Oct 2025 00:00:16 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku Beneath the untroubled blue of a summer sky, a quiet assembly gathered at a modest shrine in Hapcheon county, South Korea, last week. Here, far from the sites of devastation, Korean survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings came together to remember, to mourn and to insist that their story, though marginalised for so long, would not be forgotten. Some leaned heavily on canes, others clutched handkerchiefs in trembling hands. The altar, adorned with white chrysanthemums, stood at... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3321269/south-koreas-atomic-bomb-survivors-just-want-be-heard?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3321269/south-koreas-atomic-bomb-survivors-just-want-be-heard?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Aug 2025 01:30:13 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku On the morning of July 11, three saffron-robed monks and a dozen devotees gathered in a dense forest of Thailand’s Chaiyaphum province. After chanting prayers, they encircled a towering tree, draping it in a vivid orange cloth – the same used to robe ordained monks. This was no ordinary Buddhist ritual, but part of a growing practice called tree ordination – a symbolic act that “ordains” endangered trees as monks to protect them from logging and development. Part spiritual blessing and part... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3318823/how-thai-monks-save-trees-sacred-saffron-rituals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3318823/how-thai-monks-save-trees-sacred-saffron-rituals?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Jul 2025 04:00:16 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku Barely a week after its unveiling, a South Korean television drama centred on a forbidden romance between a teacher and her 12-year-old student was cancelled, following a torrent of public outrage that laid bare the uneasy intersection of storytelling, social responsibility and child safety in the nation’s booming media industry. The series – tentatively titled The Elementary School Student I Love – was to be based on a webtoon of the same name and had only just been announced in late June when... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3317924/south-korea-outrage-over-student-teacher-romance-forces-k-drama-air?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3317924/south-korea-outrage-over-student-teacher-romance-forces-k-drama-air?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:10 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku On a warm summer evening in Seoul’s Seodaemun district, more than 30 joggers and police officers in vests run alongside a stream, weaving between cyclists and passers-by. It may look like an ordinary fitness meet-up, but this is one of South Korea’s newest experiments in public safety. The joggers are part of Running Patrol, a city-supported initiative that enlists local running clubs to act as informal safety patrols. Launched on Thursday, the programme reflects a broader shift in Seoul’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3315288/paw-sitive-force-south-korean-joggers-and-dogs-aim-keep-public-safe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3315288/paw-sitive-force-south-korean-joggers-and-dogs-aim-keep-public-safe?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:12 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku A recent court decision involving defamation against a virtual K-pop group is prompting fresh legal debate in South Korea over the rights of digital personas – with analysts describing it as a significant shift in how the law defines harm, identity and expression in the age of the metaverse. The case centred on Plave, a five-member boy band whose anime-style avatars exist solely in the virtual realm, but are voiced and animated by real-life performers using motion-capture technology. Despite... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3315178/south-koreas-ruling-plave-libel-case-reshapes-avatar-rights-metaverse-era?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3315178/south-koreas-ruling-plave-libel-case-reshapes-avatar-rights-metaverse-era?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jun 2025 07:00:08 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku When Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung emerged victorious early on Wednesday in South Korea’s snap presidential election, elation swept through his supporters massed outside the National Assembly. Strobe lights lit the night sky, celebratory music thundered from speakers and the crowd erupted into cheers and embraces – some dissolving into tears of relief. Just a few hundred metres away, however, the atmosphere outside the People Power Party’s (PPP) headquarters could not have been more... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3313414/south-koreas-new-president-all-inherits-deeply-divided-nation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3313414/south-koreas-new-president-all-inherits-deeply-divided-nation?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jun 2025 04:01:01 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku Every night, 25-year-old student Jeong Seung-won sits at his desk, pen in hand, reading scanned images of handwritten letters posted on a website called Ongi Woopyeonham – Korean for “Warmth Mailbox”. The letters come from anonymous strangers: teenagers overwhelmed by school, retirees struggling with loneliness, or others simply seeking someone to listen. “It’s a compilation of people’s fears, concerns and deepest regrets,” Jeong said. But what makes Warmth Mailbox more than just a place to vent... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3311429/south-koreas-warmth-mailbox-delivers-handwritten-hope-age-digital-loneliness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3311429/south-koreas-warmth-mailbox-delivers-handwritten-hope-age-digital-loneliness?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 May 2025 02:00:11 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku As South Korea gears up for a high-stakes snap presidential election, many Chinese nationals and ethnic Korean-Chinese residents in Seoul say they are experiencing a disturbing rise in discrimination – fuelled by political rhetoric, social media hate speech, and street-level harassment. “We don’t want to speak about it. As a foreign national, I could be targeted,” said the owner of a Chinese restaurant in eastern Seoul, declining to share her name out of fear for her safety. In April, a protest... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3311266/south-korea-election-nears-chinese-residents-seoul-stay-quiet-amid-rising-hostility?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3311266/south-korea-election-nears-chinese-residents-seoul-stay-quiet-amid-rising-hostility?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:09 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku Bain, a member of boy band Just B, has become the first South Korean K-pop idol to publicly come out as gay, a landmark move that challenges deep-rooted taboos in the country’s entertainment industry – and, as he told This Week in Asia in an exclusive interview, one that came after intense personal struggle. “I am proud to be a part of the LGBTQ community,” the 23-year-old, whose real name is Song Byeong-hee, declared during a packed concert in Los Angeles on April 22, before dedicating a cover... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3308887/k-pops-bain-breaks-taboos-first-openly-gay-idol-not-easy-path?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3308887/k-pops-bain-breaks-taboos-first-openly-gay-idol-not-easy-path?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:15 +0000 Lee Seung-ku Lee Seung-ku https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3308661/south-koreas-uphill-battle-against-sex-crimes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3308661/south-koreas-uphill-battle-against-sex-crimes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0000 When Ruma*, a graduate student in South Korea, received sexually explicit doctored images of herself via Telegram in 2021, she could not sleep for weeks. The images were generated using artificial intelligence (AI) based on her public profile photo and when she turned to police, they told her there was nothing they could do. “I felt like I was alone,” Ruma, 31, told This Week in Asia. “I had to gather the evidence myself and even identify the culprit … it felt like I was doing the police’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3307107/south-korea-confronts-unseen-scars-ai-sex-crimes-law-didnt-protect-me?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3307107/south-korea-confronts-unseen-scars-ai-sex-crimes-law-didnt-protect-me?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:30:09 +0000 Hundreds of supporters lined the streets near South Korea’s presidential residence on Friday evening, chanting “Yoon again” and waving South Korean and American flags as former president Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee departed following his impeachment a week earlier. “Fraudulent impeachment! Null and void!” the crowd shouted, as Yoon hugged younger supporters, shook hands and exited the grounds shortly after 5pm local time. He waved to the crowd and raised a clenched fist before... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3306236/yoon-again-calls-ousted-south-korean-presidents-return-political-rift-deepens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3306236/yoon-again-calls-ousted-south-korean-presidents-return-political-rift-deepens?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Apr 2025 01:00:19 +0000