A glowing laser-and-art spectacle on Nodeul Island has drawn nearly 300,000 visitors in its first week alone, turning an island in the middle of Seoul’s Han River into one of Asia’s most captivating nighttime destinations this autumn. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday that about 299,000 people attended from the opening through Monday, as families, couples and international visitors gathered for light installations along the Han River. Now in its fourth year, the festival runs through Oct. 11, combining media art with the island’s riverside landscape and offering performances, exhibitions and interactive programs. Among its featured works is “Firmamento” by Italian artist duo Quiet Ensemble, which is being presented in Asia for the first time and uses lasers projected onto a 30-meter-by-10-meter structure to evoke a field of stars. Taiwanese artist AKA Chang presents “Multimmersion” and “PAMUN” on barges along the river, incorporating water and wind into installations designed to create moments of quiet observation. Other attractions include illuminated will

To mark the arrival of the crisp autumn weather and Hangeul Day, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is rolling out a month of night-lit celebrations, live acoustic sets and outdoor activities along the Han River. Beginning Friday, the seasonal program will center around two signature riverfront venues: Hangang PlayPlace at Ttukseom Hangang Park and Gwangjin Bridge 8th Avenue, an observation deck suspended directly beneath a bridge over the water. The festivities launch on Hangang PlayPlace with a tribute to Hangeul Day, a holiday celebrating the creation of the Korean alphabet. Starting at 1 p.m., the complex will morph into an interactive Hangeul Playground. Visitors can join scavenger hunts for hidden letters, paint traditional magnet sets or craft mother-of-pearl bookmarked name tags. A riverfront reading lounge stocked with books on Korean culture will offer a quiet retreat, while the venue’s third floor will host back-to-back screenings of classic Korean films, including the iconic war drama "TaeGukGi." The celebration extends late into the night. Following the daytime festivities

Visitors to Hanoi’s historic Imperial Citadel of Thang Long can now explore the UNESCO World Heritage Site with a new Korean-Vietnamese guide, created by the Seoul Metropolitan Government using its official city fonts and colors. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday that it will distribute the Korean-Vietnamese guide to mark Hangeul Day on Friday and deepen cultural exchanges with Hanoi. The project comes as Seoul and Hanoi mark 30 years of their friendship-city relationship, adding a cultural dimension to ties between the two cities. The guide covers nine major historic sites and nine key artifacts, with a numbered map designed to help visitors follow a clear route through the citadel. Among the sites highlighted are Hanoi Flag Tower, Doan Mon Gate and an underground bunker, while artifacts in the permanent exhibition are arranged chronologically to illustrate the site’s history. The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, built during Vietnam’s Ly dynasty in the 11th century, is one of Hanoi’s major historical and cultural sites and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. S

As the summer heat gives way to crisp autumn air, travelers across Korea are preparing for one of the country's most cherished seasonal rituals: chasing the transformation of fall foliage. To help nature enthusiasts time their journeys, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), in partnership with the Korea National Arboretum, released the official 2026 Autumn Leaves Map, offering precise peak foliage timelines and a curated list of 36 top destinations nationwide. According to this year's forecast, the northern regions — including the Seoul metropolitan area and Gangwon Province — will see peak colors beginning in late October. Further south, regions like Gyeongsang and Jeolla will hit their colorful high point between early and mid-November. What makes this year's map particularly noteworthy is the tech-forward, crowdsourced data behind the predictions. Rather than relying solely on traditional climate models, the forecasts leverage real-time observations from the National Arboretum’s Plant Phenology Project. A network of 829 citizen scientists contributed ground-level field data to

The Seoul Museum of History is turning autumn evenings into an invitation to linger, with exhibitions, hands-on workshops, performances and traditional market stalls running into the night. The museum has extended its evening hours through Nov. 30, keeping its permanent and special exhibition galleries, city model theater and Seoul History Archives open until 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The expanded hours, which began Sept. 15, are accompanied by programs designed to give visitors new ways to experience Seoul’s history and culture after work and on weekends. A traditional market called Seoyeokbak Jajetgeori will run Friday through Sunday, with stalls inspired by Joseon-era markets offering traditional crafts, cultural goods, food and drinks. On Friday and Saturday, the market will remain open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., while Sunday’s hours will run until 5 p.m. The museum will also host Exhibition Night Talk, in which curators who organized exhibitions explain their themes and introduce key artifacts directly to visitors. Seoul Urban Planning Grand View

Long before digital touchscreens and predictive text algorithms reshaped daily communication, inventors struggled with a complex puzzle: how to fit the intricate structure of the Korean alphabet onto a mechanical keyboard. Opening Friday at the G-Valley Industrial Museum in Seoul, a new exhibition titled "The Type-Writing Machine for Hangeul" traces eight decades of mechanical innovation behind the Korean script. The timing is especially symbolic, coinciding with the centennial of both Hangeul Day and the release of the Korean Braille system. The exhibition explores the evolution from early 20th-century vertical script to modern horizontal layouts, featuring over 40 rare typewriters, archival photographs and vintage media. At the center of the collection is a newly restored replica of the 1914 Lee Won-ik typewriter, widely recognized as the earliest attempt to mechanize Korean writing. Created in the United States by modifying a Smith Premier No. 10 typewriter, the machine laid the groundwork for decades of technological experimentation. Visitors can trace the fierce design debates of th

HWASEONG, Gyeonggi Province — Amira Kamal Mohamed says she used to be a shy person who rarely spoke. That began to change a decade ago, when she took up Korean while living in her home country of Egypt. She found the language gave her far more ways to put her feelings into words than her native Arabic. "In Arabic, 'sad' is just 'sad' and 'happy' is just 'happy,' but Korean has so many different expressions," said Mohamed, who studies at the King Sejong Institutes in Cairo and hopes to become a Korean language interpreter. "It let me express my emotions much more richly." Mohamed was among 181 outstanding learners from 71 countries invited to Korea by the King Sejong Institute Foundation. On Wednesday, they gathered at Hotel Prumir in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, to cheer on the 20 finalists of the foundation's Korean speaking and writing contests. The event came two days before the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Hangeul Day this Friday. It offered a glimpse of how far interest in the Korean language has spread, as many participants traced their first engagement with the lang

Lee Hwa-young, a former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province who is serving a prison sentence of seven years and eight months in connection with Ssangbangwool Group's illegal remittances to North Korea, is seeking parole from President Lee Jae Myung, with his lawyer expressing frustration over what he says is a lack of progress despite appeals made through multiple channels. Attorney Kim Kwang-min, who represents Lee Hwa-young, shared a media report on social media Wednesday and outlined his client's position. "Lee Hwa-young is now in his fifth year of imprisonment and is very angry with President Lee," Kim said in the interview. "We have conveyed through various channels his wish to be granted parole, but all we hear is that they are 'working on it,' while there has been no action." Kim also wrote on social media, "After concluding that the North Korea remittance case was fabricated, isn't the reality of completely abandoning someone who has been imprisoned for five years because of that very case far worse and more cruel?" Lee Hwa-young's side reportedly sent a letter to the president an

The heritage authority said Thursday it has yet to decide whether to raise admission fees for its major palaces and royal tombs, with the planned increase still under review. The Korea Heritage Service (KHS) had planned to announce the fee hikes in November so they could take effect in January 2027, citing the relatively low fees compared with those at major heritage sites abroad. But the service said the timing of the fee increases remains "undecided," in a document submitted to Rep. Choi Min-hee for an annual parliamentary audit. In the document, the service's Royal Palaces and Tombs Center said it will instead improve visitor services in January after reviewing the free admission programs for visitors wearing hanbok and the potential financial burden of the fee hike on the public. "At present, there are not enough rest areas, information desks and facilities for people with disabilities, and the reservation systems are not sufficiently equipped," Huh Min, chief of the KHS, said. "We are currently addressing these shortcomings." The admission fees have remained unchanged since 2005, des

While more than 5,000 sexual offenders are set to be released over three years starting next year, concerns are rising over a shortage of dedicated staff for post-release monitoring. The electronic monitoring system meant to prevent repeat crimes is under strain as each staffer’s workload has grown and violations and reoffenses have continued, raising questions about its ability to cope. According to indictments and court rulings submitted by the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court to Rep. Kim Dong-ah of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Wednesday, Cho Doo-soon, who raped an 8-year-old girl in 2008, damaged the external antenna of a home monitoring device at his residence in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in June last year. Cho was sentenced to 12 years in prison and released in 2020. He has since been under intensive 24-hour location monitoring. According to the ruling, Cho smashed the antenna under the delusion that it was beaming radio waves into his brain. The device’s cellular signal weakened sharply, but a probation officer found the damage only six days later during