Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea

This article is by Michael Lee and read by an artificial voice.

After a five-year hiatus, Seoul's flagship photography festival is returning — this time at a new home and with a broader ambition.

The Seoul Photo Festival will run from Thursday to June 14 at the Photography Seoul Museum of Art in Dobong District, northern Seoul, its first permanent base.

The 2026 edition, titled "Come Back Home," takes as its starting point a deceptively simple question: What does it mean to call a place home?

The answer, as the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) suggests, lies not in architecture alone but in the accumulation of memory, movement and relationships — a shift from house to home that mirrors the festival's own return.

First launched in 2010, the festival has served as a platform for contemporary photography in Korea, tracing changes in the medium while bringing together artists and audiences across the city. Its suspension during the Covid-19 pandemic left a noticeable gap in Seoul's visual arts calendar.

By anchoring the festival in a single venue, which opened last year after a decade of planning, SeMA aims to consolidate what had been a dispersed, citywide event into a more cohesive experience.

Featuring 23 artists, including established figures such as Han Young-soo and Park Hyung-ryeol and younger photographers like Kim Min and Shin Su-wa, the festival aims to take visitors through a sequence of rooms that will allow them to "step into different lives," according to SeMA's press release.

Each section approaches home not as a fixed dwelling, but as something shaped by time, displacement and emotional ties.

The result is less a single definition than a set of overlapping ideas: home as something built, lost, remembered and, at times, imagined.

That openness extends beyond the exhibition. Organizers have created participatory programs to enable visitors to engage with photography not only as viewers, but also as contributors.

A series of initiatives with the themes of "Look," "Read," "Talk," "Make" and "Share" include film screenings, artist talks, workshops and a citywide project inviting residents to submit their own images of home. Selected works will later be exhibited at the museum.

Other programs include a mobile library of photography books, a photo booth for instant images and a network of 24 photography-related venues across Seoul linked through a so-called photo walk.

Once primarily a showcase for contemporary photography, the festival now positions itself as a shared cultural space, where personal narratives sit alongside curated works.

"It will be 'our festival' in the sense that anyone can share their stories through photography," Choi Eun-ju, director of the Seoul Museum of Art, said in a statement, adding that the new venue would allow "diverse memories and perspectives to gather."

Beginning this year, the festival will take place every even-numbered year, an effort to ensure continuity after years of interruption.

This article is by Ko Seung-pyo and read by an artificial voice.

A man in his 70s had his name cleared almost half a century after he was wrongfully convicted on charges of being a communist sympathizer.

Shin Ji-woo, now 75 years old, was acquitted of violating the Anti-Communism Act by the Suncheon branch of the Gwangju District Court on Tuesday, 50 years after he was found guilty by a military court.

Shin, who was serving as a homeland reserve soldier in 1976, was accused of failing to report pro-Pyongyang remarks allegedly made by an acquaintance named Shin Myung-gu, a fisherman who had previously been abducted to North Korea and later returned.

South Korea at the time was ruled by a right-wing dictatorship led by President Park Chung Hee.

Investigators at the time arrested Shin Ji-woo without a warrant and extracted a false confession from him through torture, according to findings presented during the retrial.

He was sentenced to six months in prison in December that same year and lived for decades with the stigma of having been labeled a "pinko."

The turning point came after Shin Myung-gu — whose alleged remarks triggered Shin Ji-woo's prosecution — was himself acquitted in a separate retrial in April last year.

During the proceedings, prosecutors sought an acquittal, acknowledging they could not present additional evidence to support the original charges that Shin Myung-gu had praised Pyongyang.

In its ruling in Shin Ji-woo retrial, the court said his case had been "investigated and adjudicated by military judicial authorities under an authoritarian government," adding that "the state failed to heed the defendant's appeals for the truth to be revealed" and that the courts "cannot be free from responsibility."

"It may be long overdue, but we hope this ruling offers some consolation to the now-elderly defendant and serves as an opportunity to restore his honor," the court added.

However, Shin Ji-woo's long-overdue acquittal is just the tip of the iceberg.

A total of 28 people are believed to have been punished in connection with alleged statements made by Shin Myung-gu. To date, only he and Shin Ji-woo have been acquitted. Two others are pursuing retrials, but some have already died.

When he was acquitted last year, Shin Myeong-gu called on the judiciary to overturn the convictions of others prosecuted because of their ties to him.

"What use is it if I am the only one acquitted?" he told domestic media.

Shin Ji-woo's lawyer, Choi Jeong-gyu, urged prosecutors to take a more proactive role in clearing the convictions of those prosecuted at the time, noting the advanced age of many.

"Given that the victims are elderly, prosecutors should not wait for individual retrial petitions, but instead seek retrials," he said.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Baek Kyung-seo and read by an artificial voice.

DAEGU — A twin born prematurely to a 28-week pregnant American woman died after she struggled for hours to find a hospital in Daegu that could deliver her children earlier this year.

She eventually gave birth more than 175 miles away in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, but it was too late for one of the babies. The other twin remains in critical condition.

According to Daegu officials and emergency authorities on Tuesday, the woman began experiencing abdominal pain at around 10:16 p.m. on Feb. 28 while staying at a hotel in the southeastern city to visit her husband's critically ill grandmother in nearby North Gyeongsang.

Her husband, a dual Korean-U.S. citizen stationed at the U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, contacted a local obstetrics clinic.

However, the clinic declined to treat her, citing her lack of prior medical records and the high-risk nature of her pregnancy. The woman was carrying twins and had previously undergone a cervical cerclage procedure to prevent premature birth. The clinic advised the couple to seek care at a university hospital.

As her condition worsened, her husband reported to emergency services via the U.S. military in Daegu that his wife had been in pain and waiting in a wheelchair for four hours.

An ambulance arrived within eight minutes, but paramedics were unable to find a hospital that would accept her. Seven major hospitals in Daegu refused, citing a lack of obstetric specialists or insufficient neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) capacity.

After waiting for about an hour without success, the husband informed paramedics at 2:44 a.m. that he would drive his wife to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, where she had previously received care.

Daegu authorities coordinated with their Seoul counterparts to confirm that the hospital could accept her. A helicopter transfer was not feasible due to nighttime conditions and concerns that changes in air pressure could affect the woman's surgical site, officials said.

Although family members requested emergency support from authorities in North Gyeongsang and North Chungcheong provinces along the husband's route, no hospitals in those regions were able to accept the patient.

The woman was eventually transferred to an ambulance in Eumseong, North Chungcheong, and arrived at the Bundang hospital at 5:35 a.m. on March 1, where she underwent an emergency cesarean section.

One of the twins died shortly after birth due to hypoxia, while the other suffered brain damage and is still being treated.

The parents are now preparing to file a lawsuit against the Korean government.

Although emergency dispatch centers in Daegu have designated receiving hospitals for critically ill patients since August 2023, the case fell outside this system because the patient required a facility with specialized staff and NICU capacity to treat extremely premature twins, local officials said.

City officials said they plan to expand NICU capacity at regional maternal and child health centers. Currently, five hospitals in Daegu operate a total of 145 NICU beds.

Additional beds have recently been added at Daegu Catholic University Medical Center and Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, with further expansion planned at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center.

Acting Daegu Mayor Kim Jeong-gi is due to hold a meeting with hospital directors this week to discuss measures to prevent similar cases, officials said.

A city official partially attributed the shortage of maternity beds to an ongoing standoff between the government and the medical community, noting that many medical residents have not returned to work.

Essential fields such as pediatrics and obstetrics remain particularly understaffed across the southeast, the official said.

"The shortages do not affect just Daegu. Nearby regions, including North Gyeongsang, Gwangju, Busan and South Gyeongsang, rely on maternal care centers in Daegu," the offi...

This article is by Michael Lee and read by an artificial voice.

K-pop megaband BTS will add three more shows to the South American leg of its upcoming world tour, the group's agency BigHit Music said on Wednesday, underscoring the surging demand across the region.

According to a notice posted on Weverse, BTS will stage one additional concert each in Lima, Peru, on Oct. 7; Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 14; and Buenos Aires on Oct. 21. The additional concerts bring the total scale of the band's "Arirang" world tour to 85 performances across 34 cities.

The group is also set to mark several firsts for a Korean act in the Spanish-speaking world.

BTS will become the first Korean band to perform at Estadio El Campín in Bogota, Colombia, and the Estadio Único Diego Armando Maradona, formerly known as the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, in Buenos Aires, and it will also stage the first solo concert by a Korean act at Santiago's Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos.

The tour is also BTS's first group visit to Colombia, Peru and Argentina, fueling anticipation among local fans. In Peru, fans have launched a series of organized efforts — including a tree-planting campaign in the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu and volunteer cleanups of public spaces — ahead of the concert.

The world tour will kick off at Goyang Stadium, just northwest of Seoul, on Thursday. After a three-day run there, BTS will head to Japan for shows at Tokyo Dome on April 17 and 18.

The concerts will feature a 360-degree stage designed to maximize fans' immersion, the group said.

Demand has already translated into strong ticket sales. A total of 46 shows — including stops in Goyang, Tokyo, North America and Europe — have sold out.

According to concert organizer Live Nation, BTS has already sold about 2.4 million tickets across 41 concerts in North America and Europe alone.

The group is also slated to headline a string of major U.S. stadiums and will be the first Korean act to hold solo concerts at some of them, such as the Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso; the Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California; the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore; and the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Virginia.

This article is by Michael Lee, Yonhap and read by an artificial voice.

A senior North Korean official on Tuesday cast doubt on any thaw in relations with Seoul, saying the previous day's statement by Kim Yo-jong was meant as a warning, not an opening, and dismissed South Korea's response as "wishful interpretation."

Jang Kum-chol, the North's first vice foreign minister, issued the statement after officials in Seoul welcomed remarks by Kim, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, as a potentially positive signal.

Kim Yo-jong described President Lee Jae Myung as "frank and broad-minded" after he expressed regret over drone incursions into the North conducted by South Korean individuals. Her comments, coming at a moment of heightened tension, had raised hopes in Seoul of a possible shift in Pyongyang's refusal to engage in dialogue.

However, Jang called the South's assessment a "pipe dream" and said the message should be understood differently.

"The core of the statement was a clear warning," Jang said, adding that it amounted to a demand that South Korea acknowledge its "wrongdoing" and refrain from approaching the North.

He also emphasized that North Korea's view of the South as its "most hostile state" remained unchanged, pointing to Seoul's participation in United Nations resolutions criticizing Pyongyang's human rights record.

Taken together, the remarks suggest that any optimism in Seoul regarding a potential change in Pyongyang's approach to inter-Korean relations might be premature.

Kim Jong-un has previously dismissed the Lee administration's proposal for renewed inter-Korean dialogue, including a phased denuclearization plan for the Korean Peninsula.

He described the plan as "nothing more than a copied version transcribed from the 'homework notebooks' of predecessors who dreamed of our disarmament" in a speech to the Supreme People's Assembly in September.

This article is by Michael Lee, Yonhap and read by an artificial voice.

A senior North Korean official on Tuesday cast doubt on any thaw in relations with Seoul, saying the previous day's statement by Kim Yo-jong was meant as a warning, not an opening, and dismissed South Korea's response as "wishful interpretation."

Jang Kum-chol, the North's first vice foreign minister, issued the statement after officials in Seoul welcomed remarks by Kim, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, as a potentially positive signal.

Kim Yo-jong described President Lee Jae Myung as "frank and broad-minded" after he expressed regret over drone incursions into the North conducted by South Korean individuals. Her comments, coming at a moment of heightened tension, had raised hopes in Seoul of a possible shift in Pyongyang's refusal to engage in dialogue.

However, Jang called the South's assessment a "pipe dream" and said the message should be understood differently.

"The core of the statement was a clear warning," Jang said, adding that it amounted to a demand that South Korea acknowledge its "wrongdoing" and refrain from approaching the North.

He also emphasized that North Korea's view of the South as its "most hostile state" remained unchanged, pointing to Seoul's participation in United Nations resolutions criticizing Pyongyang's human rights record.

Taken together, the remarks suggest that any optimism in Seoul regarding a potential change in Pyongyang's approach to inter-Korean relations might be premature.

Kim Jong-un has previously dismissed the Lee administration's proposal for renewed inter-Korean dialogue, including a phased denuclearization plan for the Korean Peninsula.

He described the plan as "nothing more than a copied version transcribed from the 'homework notebooks' of predecessors who dreamed of our disarmament" in a speech to the Supreme People's Assembly in September.

This article is by Michael Lee, Yonhap and read by an artificial voice.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had agreed to suspend the bombing of Iran for two weeks at Pakistan's request, contingent on Tehran agreeing to the "complete" and "immediate" reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The announcement, made in a social media post, came hours after Trump sharply escalated pressure on Iran to meet a deadline to reopen the strait by 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time the same day, warning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

"I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks," he wrote on Truth Social.

"This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East," Trump added.

He said the pause was "subject to" Iran agreeing to the "COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING" of the Strait of Hormuz, citing talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir.

Trump also said the United States had received a 10-point proposal from Iran that he described as a "workable basis" for negotiations.

"Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated," he said.

The announcement marked an unexpected turn after weeks of deadlock between Washington and Tehran over how to end the conflict.

The United States has demanded that Iran abandon its nuclear program in exchange for ending hostilities. Iran, in turn, has called for reparations and guarantees that Washington will not resort to military action again. Iranian officials have also suggested they could impose tolls on ships passing through the strait to help fund reconstruction.

Trump's order to pause bombardment also came hours after U.S. forces struck Kharg Island, the hub of Iran's oil exports.

Situated off Iran's southern coast in the Persian Gulf, Kharg Island handles more than 90 percent of the country's crude oil and petroleum shipments, making it a linchpin of Iran's energy sector. Any significant damage there would likely reverberate across the economy.

The strikes took place just before a 48-hour deadline set Sunday by Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The waterway is critical to Korea's energy security as approximately 70 percent of the country's crude oil imports pass through it.

Twenty-six ships owned or operated by Korean companies are currently stranded west of the strait, including 17 crude and oil tankers, five bulk carriers, two gas carriers, a container ship and an automobile carrier.

Trump has criticized Korea, Japan and European allies for not assisting U.S. efforts to reopen the strait by deploying naval vessels to escort commercial shipping.

This article is by Michael Lee, Yonhap and read by an artificial voice.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had agreed to suspend the bombing of Iran for two weeks at Pakistan's request, contingent on Tehran agreeing to the "complete" and "immediate" reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The announcement, made in a social media post, came hours after Trump sharply escalated pressure on Iran to meet a deadline to reopen the strait by 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time the same day, warning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

"I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks," he wrote on Truth Social.

"This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East," Trump added.

He said the pause was "subject to" Iran agreeing to the "COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING" of the Strait of Hormuz, citing talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir.

Trump also said the United States had received a 10-point proposal from Iran that he described as a "workable basis" for negotiations.

"Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated," he said.

The announcement marked an unexpected turn after weeks of deadlock between Washington and Tehran over how to end the conflict.

The United States has demanded that Iran abandon its nuclear program in exchange for ending hostilities. Iran, in turn, has called for reparations and guarantees that Washington will not resort to military action again. Iranian officials have also suggested they could impose tolls on ships passing through the strait to help fund reconstruction.

Trump's order to pause bombardment also came hours after U.S. forces struck Kharg Island, the hub of Iran's oil exports.

Situated off Iran's southern coast in the Persian Gulf, Kharg Island handles more than 90 percent of the country's crude oil and petroleum shipments, making it a linchpin of Iran's energy sector. Any significant damage there would likely reverberate across the economy.

The strikes took place just before a 48-hour deadline set Sunday by Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The waterway is critical to Korea's energy security as approximately 70 percent of the country's crude oil imports pass through it.

Twenty-six ships owned or operated by Korean companies are currently stranded west of the strait, including 17 crude and oil tankers, five bulk carriers, two gas carriers, a container ship and an automobile carrier.

Trump has criticized Korea, Japan and European allies for not assisting U.S. efforts to reopen the strait by deploying naval vessels to escort commercial shipping.

This article is by Woo Ji-won and read by an artificial voice.

Many people in Korea often turn to saju, or fortunetelling, for answers — and luck. Now, for some, that search has led to a seat in a hotel lounge, preferably with a cup of coffee.

A fortune seeker named Lim Seo-hyeon recently visited the five-star Grand Hyatt Seoul hotel in Yongsan District, central Seoul, for that very reason.

"I sat in a lounge with an open view and even stroked a turtle stone statue," Lim, who made the hike up the side of Mount Namsan to the hotel on March 23, told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

She said she went after hearing that the Grand Hyatt is considered a myeongdang, or a lucky spot believed to hold good giun, or energy, and that visiting the place could bring life-changing opportunities, particularly job-related fortunes.

Lim is not alone. Another visitor, a freelancer who asked to remain anonymous, said they made a similar trip.

"I visited the place on March 14," the freelancer said. "I had a cup of coffee there with my sister. I couldn't touch the stone, though, because the area was under construction."

The idea gained momentum as reels and posts circulated online, with users claiming to find good fortune after visiting the Grand Hyatt. One such viral reel by a licensed realtor named Ha Ji-seon racked up more than 20,100 likes and 3.1 million views as of Tuesday. In the clip, she said her recent visit to the hotel, prompted by rumors of its luck-inducing energy, led to four jobs.

"I visited the Hyatt on March 7 and March 8," Ha told Korea JoongAng Daily. "Since my visit, I have experienced positive changes that are hard to believe."

Those changes included tangible business results: brand collaborations now under contract discussions, progress on a sauna brand launch project she is working on and new proposals as an influencer.

The video drew more than 2,430 comments, with some users asking for the exact location of the lucky spots, while others shared similar experiences after visiting hotels known for their good energy. A top comment said she married a man she had met at The Westin Josun Seoul hotel in Jung District, central Seoul, another hotel often said to be considered a myeongdang hotel.

Lim, too, reported positive changes — coincidental or not.

"Just a day after my visit, I received a small casting opportunity related to my aspiring career, along with a direct message inquiring about a video advertisement," Lim said.

Luck, redesigned

The trend reflects a subtle shift in how younger generations engage with belief and luck.

Instead of hoping to find luck at any old fortuneteller, some are proactively chasing it down with visits to spaces believed to enhance their fortunes — a practice tied to feng shui, the traditional Chinese concept that interprets how environments influence energy, well-being and luck.

The growing interest has not gone unnoticed by the hotels.

A Grand Hyatt representative said the hotel has noticed more visitors coming in, drawn by such beliefs.

"We have noticed that many guests visit the hotel believing in its feng shui and the luck associated with it," the source said, adding that the site was actually chosen with those energies in mind.

"Our site was originally selected as a geographically favorable location based on feng shui."

The trend has since expanded far beyond a single hotel. Lists now circulate online, sharing myeongdang hotels across Seoul — each assigned one of the five feng shui elements: wood, fire, earth, metal or water.

According to one widely shared breakdown, Lotte Hotel Seoul and The Shilla Seoul fall under wood; the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul and Park Hyatt Seoul under metal; the Conrad Seoul and Lotte Hotel World under water; and Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas and The Westin Josun Seoul under earth.

When energies clash

These ideas are also often tied to saju, a traditional Korean system of birth chart analysis, which holds that individuals carry their own elemental energies based on...

Shin June-bong

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Umberto Eco (1932-2016), the Italian novelist and polymath, argued in an essay published by The New York Times in 2015 that many of the world's major wars have originated from monotheistic religions. Reflecting on the medieval Crusades, he noted with irony that "European barbarians" who had converted to Christianity launched wars to convert Muslims who worshiped the same God. The essay, also published in full by the JoongAng Ilbo on April 8, 2015, was written in response to the terrorist attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamist extremists earlier that year.

Eco's warning about the entanglement of faith and violence has regained relevance as the Iran war, now in its sixth week, is increasingly framed in religious terms by figures within the U.S. defense establishment.

Christian history has not been devoid of peaceful periods. Early Christians, persecuted under the Roman Empire, emphasized peace in accordance with the New Testament. However, after Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in A.D. 313 through the Edict of Milan and Emperor Theodosius declared it the state religion a few decades later in 380, pacifism gradually gave way to the doctrine of the "just war."

This theory holds that participation in war can be morally justified if the cause is legitimate and unavoidable, and it emerged after Christians, under imperial protection, could no longer remain detached from the state's military actions. Notably, Augustine, a foundational thinker of the Augustinian order to which Pope Leo XIV once belonged before his election last year, systematized this doctrine.

More controversial is the concept of "holy war," which asserts that war may be waged for a higher cause, even in the absence of direct aggression. The Crusades are often cited as the clearest example of a holy war.

Within Protestant traditions, the just war theory is generally regarded as the most widely accepted position among pacifism, the just war doctrine and the concept of a holy war. The Catholic Church, through its catechism, also recognizes the legitimacy of self-defense under strict conditions, such as the risk of clear and lasting damage and the exhaustion of all other means, and places it within the framework of the just war theory.

The difficulty lies in the blurred boundary between a just war and a holy war. Conflicts are rarely the result of unilateral fault. Against this backdrop, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's remark that "America is facing a crusade moment" risks encouraging interpretations that verge on a holy war.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.