Savoring traditional Korean soju requires five steps, similar to wine tasting. You have to look at the color, smell the aroma, sip and hold it in the mouth for several seconds before letting it slide down the throat and enjoying the slowly spreading scent inside the nose and throat. “A good soju is soft and makes you smile,” said artisan Kim Taek-sang at his brewing studio at Samcheong-ro in Jongno, central Seoul. Kim, who was named Seoul Intangible Cultural Asset No. 8 in 1990, has carried on t

During normal get-together parties at the year-end, Koreans chat and share past memories while roasting their beef and pork bellies over hot grills. But these parties can’t start without shots of distilled liquor soju or boilermaker drinks -- mix of beer and soju.After endless and unstoppable shots of drinks not only in glasses but also bowls, some get up quietly and leave early, while others who stay behind get emotional which sometimes leads to tussles while their minds go blank, with no memor

There’s an ancient folktale that tells the story of a monkey who blushed and smiled uncontrollably after gorging on a fermented apple he found on the ground. After a farmer noticed the monkey’s pleasant reaction to eating the old piece of fruit, he wondered if humans could enjoy the same blissful side effect, which led to the invention of alcohol. Visitors learn the history of traditional Korean liquor products at the Sansawon gallery in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Heral

Amid the unprecedented boom of Korean art in the global art scene driven by the popularity of dansaekhwa, monochrome painting, Korean galleries are raising their antennas to search out the post-dansaekhwa generation.  Untitled-12050 by Lee Kang-wook (Arario Gallery)In their relentless search for new artists, Arario Gallery has introduced artist Lee Kang-wook in its first exhibition of the fresh new year.  Lee has just returned to the local art scene after a seven-year hiatus. In 2009, Lee left K

Chef Kwon Woo-joong has been losing sleep recently, contemplating how to best prepare and present Korean seafood cuisine in front of hundreds of global star chefs and business executives at the upcoming Madrid Fusion in Spain.Kwon Woo-joong (Kwon Woo-joong)Together with the Korean Food Foundation, Kwon will lead a team of five chefs from his Korean restaurant Kwon Sooksoo to represent Korea and introduce three seafood dishes at the global food congress on Jan. 25-27. The Korean Food Foundation i

Some 110 young practitioners of taekwondo took an oath in front of the newly inaugurated president Lee Joong-keun of the World Taekwondo Peace Corps on Wednesday in Seoul, vowing to promote peace and prosperity worldwide through the national sport. World Taekwondo Peace Corps president Lee Joong-keun gives his inaugural speech as he launches the organization’s 16th contingent of volunteers. (Booyoung Group)The World Taekwondo Peace Corps’ 16th contingent of sports ambassadors will be dispatched

In the 1980s and ‘90s, young children and students needed to hide their comic books from teachers and parents in order to secretly enjoy them.When they were caught furtively reading comics like “Dragon Ball” or “Slam Dunk” from Japan, or Korean series featuring famous characters such as baseball player Dok Gotak and Kkachi, instead of studying for college exams, they were immediately punished, while the seized comic books were ripped to shreds and thrown out. Comic books were considered dangerou

Korea’s two biggest auction houses -- Seoul Auction and K Auction -- led strong sales at their winter auctions last week, thanks to record sales and strong bidding for “dansaekhwa” monochrome paintings. Kim Whanki’s 1940s painting “Island Sketches” sold for 1.6 billion won ($1.3 million) at K Auction in Seoul last week. (K Auction)The two auction houses achieved hammer prices of 10 billion won ($10 million) with 80 percent of auctioned items sold. With works by Kim Whanki and Lee U-fan leading s

Media technology -- whether hardware or software -- has further boosted the value of content, not made it worthless or led to the disappearance of conventional broadcasting networks.  Mickey Kim, head of Asia-Pacific for Google’s Chromecast & TV (Media & Future Institute)However, the media industry must be able to quickly “catch and read” the latest technology and consumption trends in order to stay ahead of the game, according to Mickey Kim, head of Asia-Pacific for Google’s Chromecast & TV. Th

Following its recent forays into Japan, the world’s second-largest comics market, Korean webtoon platform operator Lezhin Entertainment is about to take on a new venture in the U.S.Lezhin Entertainment’s U.S. team members – (from left) Grace Chong, Jeon Jae-heung, James Kim and Bae Soon-yong -- pose for a photo at the webtoon platform’s headquarters in southern Seoul. Lezhin plans to launch its U.S. service early next year. (Lezhin)A team of four young entrepreneurs -- “a start-up within a start

Verove appointed Hyatt Regency Jeju GMHyatt Regency Jeju announced the appointment of Patrick Verove as its new general manager. Verove will be in charge of the hotel’s operations and management, bringing with him a wealth of experience in the hotel industry.Before joining Hyatt Regency Jeju, he spent more than five years as the manager of Grand Hyatt Incheon. Verove started his career in 1989 at Grand Hyatt Melbourne, beginning his 27-year relationship with Hyatt. “I am committed to continuing

Record tourists to GermanyThe German National Tourist Board said that it had a record number of days inbound tourists stayed in Germany as of the end of the third quarter.Statistics show a total of 62 million overnight stays at accommodation facilities of at least 10 beds from January-September, up about 5.3 percent from a year ago. In 2014, Koreans stayed in Germany for an average of 500,000 days, and the number is expected to grow to 600,000 days in 2020, the German tourism board noted.Germany

Why We Should Be Angryby Jang Ha-sung(Heybooks)　Jang Ha-sung, who is widely known in the fields of corporate governance and shareholder activism, tackles one of the most urgent problems rising in Korea – inequality.The Korean economy, which rose from rags to riches at a remarkable pace, now faces the fallout from the quick rise where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer as the country’s fully adopts capitalism.The root of the problem is the widening income gap between empl