Portal:South Korea

The contemporary culture of South Korea developed from the traditional culture of Korea which was prevalent in the early Korean nomadic tribes. By maintaining thousands of years of ancient Korean culture, with influence from ancient Chinese culture, South Korea split on its own path of cultural development away from North Korean culture since the division of Korea in 1945. The industrialization, urbanization and westernization of South Korea, especially Seoul, have brought many changes to the way Korean people live. Changing economics and lifestyles have led to urbanization—a concentration of population in major cities (and depopulation of the rural countryside), with multi-generational households separating into nuclear family living arrangements. Today, many cultural elements from South Korea, especially popular culture, have spread across the globe and have become some of the most prominent cultural forces in the world. (Full article...)

Credit: Presidencia de la Nacion Argentina

The 2010 G-20 Seoul summit was the fifth meeting of the G-20 heads of government to discuss the global financial system and the world economy. It was held in Seoul, South Korea.

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• ... that South Korean boy band TVXQ (pictured) became the first foreign artist to have four number-one singles on the Japanese single charts?
• ... that director/screenwriter Kang Dae-ha from Jeju Island, South Korea, directed films related to Korean shamanism?
• ... that South Korean fashion model Daul Kim was also a keen painter and had exhibited her works at a solo exhibition in Seoul?

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11 June 2024 – Korean conflict

South Korea says that its forces fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the demarcation line in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. South Korean authorities state that they believe the intrusion, which occurred in a densely forested area, was accidental. (Reuters)

9 June 2024 – North Korea–South Korea relations

South Korea announces that it will resume loudspeaker broadcasts over the Korean Demilitarized Zone for the first time since 2018 in response to North Korea sending hundreds of balloons carrying garbage across the border. (BBC News)

5 June 2024 – Korean conflict

The United States and South Korea participate in the first precision guided bombing drill in 7 years over the Korean Peninsula, as tensions rise after North Korea sends trash-filled balloons into South Korea. (CNN) (AP)

4 June 2024 – North Korea–South Korea relations

The State Council of South Korea suspends the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration due to border tensions over balloons sent across the border by North Korea. (AP)

6 May 2024 –

An American soldier is arrested in Russia on charges of criminal misconduct. According to US officials, the soldier was based in South Korea and had been accused of stealing from a woman. (Reuters)

2 May 2024 – Korean conflict

South Korea raises its terrorism alert level to the second-highest level, citing strong chances of an attack from North Korea on its overseas diplomatic offices. (Reuters) (The Korea Herald)

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Kim Ki-young (Korean: 김기영; October 10, 1919 – February 5, 1998) was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of their female characters. Kim was born in Seoul during the colonial period, raised in Pyongyang, where he became interested in theater and cinema. In Korea after the end of World War II, he studied dentistry while becoming involved in the theater. During the Korean War, he made propaganda films for the United States Information Service. In 1955, he used discarded movie equipments to produce his first two films. With the success of these two films Kim formed his own production company and produced popular melodramas for the rest of the decade.

Kim Ki-young's first expression of his mature style was in The Housemaid (1960), which featured a powerful femme fatale character. It is widely considered one of the best Korean films of all time. After a "Golden Age" during the 1960s, the 1970s were a low-point in the history of Korean cinema because of government censorship and a decrease in audience attendance. Nevertheless, working independently, Kim produced some of his most eccentric cinematic creations in this era. Films such as Insect Woman (1972) and Iodo (1977) were successful at the time and highly influential on the younger generations of South Korean filmmakers both at their time of release, and with their rediscovery years later. By the 1980s, Kim's popularity had declined, and his output decreased in the second half of the decade. Neglected by the mainstream during much of the 1990s, Kim became a cult figure in South Korean film Internet forums in the early 1990s. Widespread international interest in his work was stimulated by a career retrospective at the 1997 Pusan International Film Festival. He was preparing a comeback film when he and his wife were killed in a house fire in 1998. The Berlin International Film Festival gave Kim a posthumous retrospective in 1998, and the French Cinémathèque screened 18 of Kim's films, some newly rediscovered and restored, in 2006. Through the efforts of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), previously lost films by Kim Ki-young continue to be rediscovered and restored. Many current prominent South Korean filmmakers, including directors Im Sang-soo, Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, claim Kim Ki-young as an influence on their careers. (Full article...)

• ... that Draken is the tallest, fastest, and joint-steepest roller coaster in South Korea?
• ... that the dish gogi-guksu, from South Korea's Jeju Island, developed in part because of the Japanese colonial period?
• ... that in the Russian Far East, there is a population of North Koreans in Kamchatka that now aligns itself with South Korea?
• ... that South Korean band Seventeen partnered with Apple to let fans create remixes of their song "Darl+ing" on GarageBand?
• ... that the Korean protest song "Morning Dew" was banned in North and South Korea?
• ... that Stellar Blade's Eve was described as "a woman born from South Korea's culture and philosophy" by The Washington Post?

See WikiProject Korea for collaborating on South Korea topics, and more broadly, on all things Korea-related.