Malaysia’s Myanmar bet? Repatriations pave way for diplomacy

South China Morning Post - Oct 7, 2026

Malaysia’s repatriation of Myanmar nationals ahead of a visit to Kuala Lumpur by the war-torn country’s leader appears to mirror efforts by other Asean countries seeking to mend ties with Naypyidaw. Several Asean members have stepped up engagement with Myanmar at the bilateral level recently, raising questions about whether a gradual normalisation between the bloc and the country could undermine efforts to end its civil war, according to analysts. Nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals repatriated from...

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Korea launches inaugural 'Korean Food Day' with 3-day festival in Seoul

Oct 7, 2026

Korea launches inaugural 'Korean Food Day' with 3-day festival in Seoul

Korean food will take center stage at National Museum of Korea later this month as Korea marks its first legally designated Korean Food Day with a three-day festival featuring chefs, food creators and industry experts. HANSIK FESTA will run Oct. 23-25 at the museum’s auditorium and Mirror Pond area, with events organized by Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Friday’s program will include the first Korean Food Day ceremony and a conference examining how Korean cuisine can evolve as both a cultural asset and global industry. Speakers will include chef Ok Dong-sik, chef Son Jong-won of Eatanic Garden, producer Lee Wook-jung, Park Hyun-young of Life Trend Observation Center and Kim Sook-jin of CJ CheilJedang. The conference will explore Korean food’s place in global dining, its emergence as a brand and how food, culture and media have helped carry Korean cuisine beyond Korea. Visitors can watch cooking demonstrations featuring master chef Lee Ha-yeon, chef Han Shin-hee, monk Woo Kwan, chef Park Joo-eun and food creators including Magic Boy K

Seoul Design Award 2026 grand prize winner to be revealed live Oct. 14

Oct 7, 2026

Seoul Design Award 2026 grand prize winner to be revealed live Oct. 14

The winners of the Seoul Design Award 2026 will be revealed live on Oct. 14 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul, event organizers said Wednesday. The award, launched in 2019, recognizes design projects that address social problems in sustainable ways. This year, it drew 1,204 entries from 91 countries, bringing the cumulative number of participating countries to 119. Designers of the 10 finalist projects will present their work on stage, and the grand prize winner will be decided by combining scores from a nine-member jury and a public vote. Judges include Samsung Electronics Chief Design Officer Mauro Porcini and Andrea Cancellato, director of the ADI Design Museum in Italy. The finalists include the Otter Newborn Warmer from U.S. nonprofit Design that Matters, a portable device that keeps infants warm where electricity and medical resources are scarce. Denmark's ReefCircular makes 3D-printed clay artificial reefs that divers can install without heavy equipment. Japan's WheeLog! lets wheelchair users record and share accessible routes and facilities, while Indonesia's Kampung Mr

Seoul taps foreign honorary citizens as tech ambassadors

Oct 7, 2026

Seoul taps foreign honorary citizens as tech ambassadors

Major cities have long handed key-to-the-city honors to foreign dignitaries and prominent expats, often viewing the gesture as little more than a ceremonial nod to civic goodwill. But in Seoul, city officials are increasingly eager to turn these international residents into an active network of brand ambassadors and policy advisors. The Seoul Metropolitan Government hosted its third Honorary Citizen Networking Day of the year at Coex in southern Seoul, Tuesday. The event brought together 20 foreign honorary citizens and local officials, aligning their gathering with Smart Life Week 2026, the city’s flagship technology summit focused on artificial intelligence and urban innovation. Against the backdrop of interactive exhibits showcasing cutting-edge artificial intelligence and civic tech, participants attended the summit’s opening ceremony, joined a roundtable discussion with city leaders, and toured the exhibition floor. The goal was twofold: give long-time foreign residents a firsthand look at Seoul's digital vision while gathering their insights to refine municipal policies. "Netw

Skipping showers before a date? What's behind 'pheromone maxxing' trend

Oct 7, 2026

Skipping showers before a date? What's behind 'pheromone maxxing' trend

Click here for more articles by Kormedi.com. For most people, getting ready for a date means taking a shower and perhaps putting on deodorant or perfume. But some are doing the opposite, deliberately avoiding showers and scented products in the belief that preserving their natural body odor could make them more attractive. The practice, known as "pheromone maxxing," has recently gained attention on social media, particularly among young men. The idea is to reduce showering and avoid deodorant, perfume and other fragranced products so that the body's natural scent remains as strong as possible. The trend centers on pheromones, chemical signals released by an individual that trigger specific responses in other members of the same species. Pheromones are well established in many animals and can play an important role in mating behavior. Female silkworm moths, for example, release a sex pheromone called bombykol that can attract males even at extremely low concentrations. Mice also use chemical cues in urine and other secretions to gather information about other animals, including their sex

At 94, Korea's oldest university president is still planning for future

Oct 7, 2026

At 94, Korea's oldest university president is still planning for future

At an age when most people have long stepped away from professional life, Lee Gil-ya is still thinking about what comes next. The 94-year-old president of Gachon University is Korea’s longest-serving university president. Lee took over the management of Kyungwon University in 1998 and became its president in 2000, later overseeing the integration of four institutions that culminated in the launch of Gachon University in 2012. She has since led the integrated university for nearly 14 years — an unusually long tenure in Korea, where university presidents typically serve relatively short terms. She attributes her forward-looking approach to decades spent building hospitals and educational institutions, where successes and failures alike taught her to recognize change early and act quickly — an approach now shaping Gachon University’s push to stay ahead in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. “Hardship itself is a kind of success. It becomes the foundation for success,” Lee said in a recent interview with The Korea Times, stressing that failures and setbacks are experiences peo

Police officer indicted for fabricating, distributing deepfake videos of acquaintances

Oct 7, 2026

Police officer indicted for fabricating, distributing deepfake videos of acquaintances

A police officer in Seoul has been indicted for using artificial intelligence (AI) to create and spread deepfake videos of people he knew, prosecutors said Wednesday. The Busan District Prosecutors Office said the officer, stationed at Seoul's Dongdaemun Police Station, manufactured roughly 400 such videos and distributed about 50 of them between March 2022 and August this year. He was earlier arrested and detained by investigators from the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, following a monthslong undercover investigation launched in December 2025 to verify suspicions that illegal, exploitative videos were being circulated via Telegram. The police officer was later found to have been probed for a similar offense before joining the police, but the prosecution decided against indicting him at that time. The officer was also charged with possessing about 5,600 illegally filmed videos, including about 1,600 that involve child abuse, and producing about 10 illegally filmed videos using his mobile phone.

Unification Church foundation sought to sell $39 mil. in assets during probe: lawmaker

Oct 7, 2026

Unification Church foundation sought to sell $39 mil. in assets during probe: lawmaker

The Unification Church foundation tried to dispose of assets worth 52.3 billion won ($39 million) while it was under investigation over corruption charges linked to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, a lawmaker said Wednesday. The Foundation for the Support of HSA-UWC, run by the Unification Church, filed two applications with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in December and March to dispose of its land and buildings, but both were rejected, Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said, citing reports submitted by the ministry. By law, nonprofit organizations, such as religious foundations, must obtain approval from the ministry before disposing of their core assets, including land and buildings. The foundation applied in December to dispose of assets worth about 52 billion won in Seoul. The ministry rejected the request, however, saying there was insufficient justification for selling high-value assets without a specific plan for their use at a time when the foundation and its affiliates were under investigation by a special counsel and police. It submitted a se

Emmy Award-winning documentarian explores hidden stories of Korean adoptees

Oct 7, 2026

Emmy Award-winning documentarian explores hidden stories of Korean adoptees

Deann Borshay Liem spent much of her childhood believing she was an orphan. Adopted from Korea to the United States in 1966, Liem discovered in the early 1980s that her birth mother and siblings were alive. She also learned that her identity had been switched with another child during the adoption process and that her adoption documents had been falsified. That discovery found its way into Liem's work as a documentary filmmaker, through which she explored her own past and the broader history of Korea's overseas adoptions. "Trying to understand the truth about my adoption was part of the motivation for making my first film 'First Person Plural'," Liem said in a recent email interview with The Korea Times. Released in 2000, the documentary followed her search for and reunion with her Korean family. In 2010, she made "In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee," which traced the identity of the girl whose name had been substituted for hers. "These two films were intimate first-person explorations of my adoption and a means to recuperate my personal history and identity," she said. Her work also extended b

3 municipalities added to list of 'depopulation' areas, total at 92

Oct 7, 2026

3 municipalities added to list of 'depopulation' areas, total at 92

South Korea has added three more municipalities to its list of "depopulation" areas, raising the number of cities, counties and wards facing risk of regional extinction to 92, officials said Thursday. The interior ministry newly designated Geumjeong Ward of the southeastern city of Busan, Dongducheon, just north of Seoul, and the southeastern city of Tongyeong in addition to the country's existing 89 depopulation areas. The ministry first announced the list of depopulation areas in 2021 as part of efforts to provide intensive support and help the areas combat shrinking populations. South Korea has been struggling with chronically low childbirths and an overcrowded capital region, which have left many areas struggling to overcome declining populations. The updated list includes 16 areas from the southwestern province of South Jeolla, 15 from the southeastern province of North Gyeongsang, and 12 each from southeastern South Gyeongsang Province and northeastern Gangwon Province. It also includes 10 from southwestern North Jeolla Province, nine from central South Chungcheong Province and six

Korea targets 170 ticket scalpers in 1st mass police referral

Oct 7, 2026

Korea targets 170 ticket scalpers in 1st mass police referral

Under newly tightened anti-scalping laws, Korean authorities referred 170 high-volume ticket resellers to police on Wednesday, targeting an illegal trade estimated at more than 1 billion won ($770,000). The sweep marks the first major enforcement action under amended legislation that bans reselling tickets above face value, regardless of whether automated buying software was used. The move follows an unprecedented wave of public tips: Between Aug. 28, when the law took effect, and Oct. 1, authorities received over 68,000 complaints — averaging roughly 2,000 a day, a seventeenfold surge compared to last year. Cooperating with online secondary ticket platforms, regulators blocked around 30,000 suspicious posts and obtained transaction data to identify the most severe offenders. The suspects, comprising 121 sellers in sports and 49 in entertainment, allegedly offered 11,032 tickets. In one extreme instance, a single individual offered more than 1,000 tickets with a combined listing price exceeding 100 million won. “Ticket scalping is a clear criminal act that deprives creators and athl

Teen drug offenders caught in Jan.-July near 80% of 2025 total

Oct 7, 2026

Teen drug offenders caught in Jan.-July near 80% of 2025 total

The number of teenagers apprehended by police for drug-related offenses in the first seven months of this year reached nearly 80 percent of last year's annual total, a lawmaker said Wednesday, citing data from the Korean National Police Agency. According to the police data released by Rep. Kim Jun-hyuk of the ruling Democratic Party, 370 teenagers were apprehended for drug offenses between January and July, equivalent to 78.7 percent of the 470 teenagers apprehended for such offenses throughout last year. The number of teenage drug offenders stood at 309 in 2021 and 294 in 2022, but surged to 1,066 in 2023. It subsequently decreased to 442 in 2024 before rising again to 470 last year. The total number of drug offenders rose from 10,626 in 2021 to 12,387 in 2022 and 17,817 in 2023. The number then fell to 13,512 in 2024 and 13,353 last year, while 8,426 offenders were apprehended in the first seven months of this year. Students accounted for a significant share of those apprehended. As of July this year, 295 students had been apprehended for drug offenses, or 63 percent of the 468 students

Sejong University ranks 8th in Korea, 281st globally in THE World University Rankings 2027

Oct 7, 2026

Sejong University ranks 8th in Korea, 281st globally in THE World University Rankings 2027

Sejong University ranked eighth in Korea and 281st globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2027. With an overall score of 55.8 points, the university placed among the top 10 of the 44 Korean universities evaluated by the U.K.-based rankings agency. The university, which was listed in the 251-300 band last year, ranked 281st globally this year among the 2,297 universities evaluated worldwide. Sejong University said the results reflected its strong performance in the research quality category. It received 90.5 points in the category, the highest among Korean universities. The university became the only Korean university to score above 90 in the category, highlighting its strength in research quality. The category assesses factors including citation impact, which reflects the number of citations per publication; research strength measured by Field-Weighted Citation Impact; research excellence, which evaluates the proportion of a university’s publications among the top 10 percent of the most cited papers; and research influence. The university also performed st

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