Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea

Chinese President Xi Jinping returned home on Tuesday after wrapping up a two-day, one-night visit to Pyongyang. Choosing North Korea as his first overseas destination this year, Xi showcased the two countries' "special relationship" and "strategic partnership" as a blood alliance through a summit with State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un and a visit to the Friendship Tower. Beyond restoring once-strained bilateral ties, the two sides have moved into comprehensive alignment spanning the economy, diplomacy, law enforcement and even the military. As North Korea put it, Xi's visit may have opened a "new chapter" in bilateral ties, but dark clouds have gathered over the security landscape of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.

According to statements and reports from both countries, any mention of North Korea's denuclearization disappeared entirely from this summit. Given that past summits at least referred in principle to the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," this marks a serious change in China's stance.

At the summit, Xi said that both sides "must firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty, security and development interests." Considering that North Korea has claimed nuclear development as a "sovereign right" and even codified it in its constitution, it is hard to dismiss concerns that Xi's remarks implicitly aligned with Pyongyang's argument and tolerated its possession of nuclear weapons.

China has, until now, made denuclearization a principle of its Korean Peninsula policy and has presented itself as a mediator as host of the six-party talks aimed at North Korea's denuclearization. If China accepted North Korea's position and excluded denuclearization from this summit's agenda, it would deserve criticism for abandoning its responsible role in the international community.

Also troubling is the inclusion of the phrase "military exchanges" in the Chinese statement. In addition, the economic cooperation Xi proposed, including the full opening of border trade crossings, could lead to the weakening of the international community's sanctions against the North Korean regime.

North Korea, having strengthened its ties with Russia, is enhancing its strategic value through cooperation with China, its traditional ally. Diplomatic and security authorities must recognize the serious repercussions that this closer North Korea-China relationship could bring and prepare countermeasures.

President Lee Jae Myung called for China's role in North Korea's denuclearization at the South Korea-China summit last January, but it is questionable whether China is truly playing a role commensurate with that request. The government must demonstrate diplomatic resolve by clearly conveying its concerns to China about security threats in Northeast Asia and urging it to act responsibly.

의제에서 실종된 비핵화, 더 위험해진 북·중 밀착

시진핑 중국 국가주석이 1박2일간의 평양 방문을 마치고 어제 귀국했다. 올해 첫 해외 방문지로 북한을 택한 시 주석은 김정은 국무위원장과의 정상회담, 북·중 우의탑 참배 등을 통해 '특수 관계'와 '전략적 동반자'로서 혈맹을 과시했다. 소원했던 양국 관계의 복원을 넘어 경제·외교·법 집행은 물론 군사 분야까지 총망라한 포괄적 밀착이다. 북한의 표현대로 시 주석의 방북이 양국의 "새로운 장"을 열었을지 모르지만 한반도와 동북아 안보 지형에는 먹구름이 드리워졌다.

양국 발표문이나 보도에 따르면 북한 비핵화에 대한 언급이 이번 정상회담에서 아예 사라졌다. 과거 정상회담 때마다 원론적인 수준에서라도 '한반도 비핵화'를 언급했던 점을 고려하면 중국의 심각한 태도 변화다. 시 주석은 정상회담에서 "각자의 주권과 안보, 발전 이익을 확고히 수호해야 한다"고 했다. 북한이 핵 개발을 '주권적 권리'라고 주장하면서 헌법에까지 명문화한 점을 감안하면, 시 주석의 발언은 북한의 주장에 암묵적으로 동조하면서 핵 보유를 묵인한 것이 아니냐는 우려를 지울 수 없다. 중국은 여태까지 비핵화를 한반도 정책의 원칙으로 삼아 왔고 북한 비핵화를 위한 6자회담 개최국으로 중재자 역할을 자임했던 나라다. 중국이 북한의 주장을 받아들여 이번 회담 의제에서 비핵화를 제외한 것이라면 국제사회에서의 책임 있는 역할을 스스로 내려놓은 것이란 비판을 사고도 남는다. 중국 측 발표문에 '군대 교류'란 표현이 들어간 것도 우려를 더하는 대목이다. 또한 시 주석이 제안한 국경 통상구 전면 개통 등의 경제협력은 국제사회의 대북 제재망 무력화로 이어질 수 있다.

러시아와 밀착 관계를 다진 북한은 전통 우방인 중국과의 전략적 협력을 통해 몸값을 높이고 있다. 외교안보 당국은 이번 북·중 밀착이 가져올 파장을 엄중히 인식하고 대응책을 마련해야 한다. 이재명 대통령은 지난 1월 한·중 정상회담에서 북한 비핵화를 위한 중국의 역할을 주문했는데, 과연 중국이 그에 걸맞은 역할을 하고 있는지 의문이다. 정부는 동북아 안보 위협에 대한 우려를 중국에 명확히 전달하고 책임 있는 행동을 촉구하는 외교력을 발휘해야 한다.

Xi Jinping's summit with Kim Jong-un signaled deeper North Korea-China alignment while denuclearization vanished from the agenda.

Chinese President Xi Jinping returned home on Tuesday after wrapping up a two-day, one-night visit to Pyongyang. Choosing North Korea as his first overseas destination this year, Xi showcased the two countries' "special relationship" and "strategic partnership" as a blood alliance through a summit with State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un and a visit to the Friendship Tower. Beyond restoring once-strained bilateral ties, the two sides have moved into comprehensive alignment spanning the economy, diplomacy, law enforcement and even the military. As North Korea put it, Xi's visit may have opened a "new chapter" in bilateral ties, but dark clouds have gathered over the security landscape of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.

According to statements and reports from both countries, any mention of North Korea's denuclearization disappeared entirely from this summit. Given that past summits at least referred in principle to the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," this marks a serious change in China's stance.

At the summit, Xi said that both sides "must firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty, security and development interests." Considering that North Korea has claimed nuclear development as a "sovereign right" and even codified it in its constitution, it is hard to dismiss concerns that Xi's remarks implicitly aligned with Pyongyang's argument and tolerated its possession of nuclear weapons.

China has, until now, made denuclearization a principle of its Korean Peninsula policy and has presented itself as a mediator as host of the six-party talks aimed at North Korea's denuclearization. If China accepted North Korea's position and excluded denuclearization from this summit's agenda, it would deserve criticism for abandoning its responsible role in the international community.

Also troubling is the inclusion of the phrase "military exchanges" in the Chinese statement. In addition, the economic cooperation Xi proposed, including the full opening of border trade crossings, could lead to the weakening of the international community's sanctions against the North Korean regime.

North Korea, having strengthened its ties with Russia, is enhancing its strategic value through cooperation with China, its traditional ally. Diplomatic and security authorities must recognize the serious repercussions that this closer North Korea-China relationship could bring and prepare countermeasures.

President Lee Jae Myung called for China's role in North Korea's denuclearization at the South Korea-China summit last January, but it is questionable whether China is truly playing a role commensurate with that request. The government must demonstrate diplomatic resolve by clearly conveying its concerns to China about security threats in Northeast Asia and urging it to act responsibly.

Opinion Desk [[email protected]]

The opposition leader's push for a nationwide revote and an end to early voting risks fueling fraud claims instead of restoring trust through a full inquiry.

Jang Dong-hyeok, the leader of the People Power Party (PPP), said on Tuesday regarding the ballot shortage in the June 3 local elections that "the only way to fundamentally resolve this disenfranchisement crisis is ultimately to hold a nationwide revote." He argued that, separate from legal procedures such as election petitions and lawsuits, the National Election Commission should itself declare this local election invalid and then hold rerun elections nationwide.

While there is no dispute that there was a comprehensive failure in election administration, it is questionable whether the main opposition party leader's call for a nationwide revote accords with ordinary voters' common sense. That is because the priority should be to thoroughly uncover the truth behind the mistakes of the constitutional body that deprived the public of their precious voting rights and clearly reveal it to the public.

Jang is also calling for the abolition of early voting along with a nationwide rerun election. Using online posts by internal election commission staff complaining of practical difficulties and limitations in managing early voting and vote counting as a pretext, he is denying the entire system outright. He has even mentioned the so-called twin vote tally phenomenon, in which Democratic Party and PPP candidates recorded the same number of votes at different polling stations during early voting, speaking and acting as though he is trying to link this election to past allegations of election fraud.

However, attempts to connect the calls at a rally in the Olympic Park in Songpa District, southern Seoul, demanding guaranteed voting rights with election fraud claims are a direct insult to voters who want fairness and justice. The argument that early voting, which was introduced to guarantee voting rights, should simply be abolished is also irresponsible.

One would hope Jang is not making such arguments with the intention of using public anger to evade demands that he take responsibility for the local election defeat and step down.

If election fraud claims or conspiracy theories intervene in this situation, it will be impossible to root out the lawlessness and laxity of the complacent election commission. Only after a thorough and objective fact-finding process and measures in accordance with legal procedures can a reasonable solution be found to this unprecedented infringement of voting rights.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who was, for all intents and purposes, directly affected by the ballot shortage incident, and even voices within the PPP have expressed a cautious view that the election law, which stipulates that a revote should not be held unless illegalities altered the outcome, must be respected. What the leader of the main opposition party should be doing now is not jumping on election fraud claims but gathering constructive opinions from inside and outside his party and helping restore trust in the election system. That is the stern command of the people, who are sovereign.

On a summer morning in Seoul two years ago, Yoon Gap-yeon, an 81-year-old woman who lives by herself, collapsed just at the threshold her front door.

After that, she remembers little.

She lay alone on the floor of her basement home for roughly half an hour — long enough, in the heat, that the outcome could easily have been different.

Fortunately, her Yakult delivery woman arrived — one of Korea's roughly 11,000 "fresh managers," women who deliver chilled probiotic drinks door to door on electric carts.

"She said, 'What's wrong?' I could hear her, but I couldn't respond," Yoon told the Korea JoongAng Daily last week.

The manager ran to find a pharmacy, returned with medicine, came back that evening with porridge, and later helped connect Yoon to her local community center for welfare support.

"If she hadn't come when she did, I don't know what would have happened to me," Yoon said.

Korea has one of the world's fastest-aging populations. Nearly two million Koreans aged 65 and older live alone, equal to one in five seniors.

Last year, a record 3,924 died in isolation, alone, their deaths undiscovered for days or longer. A survey by the Seoul Institute found that 62.1 percent of people living alone report feeling lonely; 13.6 percent have no one to rely on at all.

Yoon lives alone in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul. Intestinal surgery years earlier had left her weighing 41 kilograms (90 lbs) and unable to eat most ordinary foods. Her son lives in Ulsan, a five-hour drive away, and visits when he can.

The manager who found her that morning was Son Young-soon. The Korea JoongAng Daily joined Son on her morning rounds on May 26.

Before becoming a Yakult delivery woman 26 years ago, Son worked as a nursing assistant — a background, she said, that made her attentive to the kinds of changes that can go unnoticed in someone living alone.

Her route winds past Hyemin Hospital and through streets lined with low-rise residential buildings and public housing in Gwangjin District, an area with one of the higher concentrations of elderly and vulnerable residents in eastern Seoul. She manages around 70 customers, about 10 of them are older adults living alone. Yoon is one of them.

The deliveries take only a minute at each door.

Son rings the bell. If the customer is home, they come to the door; if not, she leaves the pouch on the handle. When the door opens, the conversation rarely stays on the drinks.

"They have no one to talk to," Son said. "So when you see them, it all comes out — how they're feeling, where it hurts. Some of them give you fruit or snacks and say thank you."

Son keeps notes on who has been quieter than usual, who mentioned a hospital appointment, who did not answer on a day they were expected to be home.

"I just like people," she said. "Especially the elderly — they seem to like me. I have a friendly face."

On the morning of May 26, as she worked her way down the block, a neighbor stopped mid-stride to place an order. A few minutes later, Yoon, returning from a hospital visit, spotted Son across the street, crossed over and took her hand.

A man surnamed Kim, 82, is another of Son's customers, who has been receiving deliveries three times a week for three years through a government designation. Asked about his daily routine, he was brief.

"Eating, sleeping," he said. "Taking medicine every day."

Asked whether he has friends or neighbors his age nearby, he paused for only a moment.

"They're all dead," he said. "I'm living on medicine."

A care worker comes to clean his home and do his laundry. Son's visits offer something different, he said — "emotionally. In the heart." He called the people who come to see him "angels," and said he looks forward to the visits.

Fresh managers like Son often end up doing more than delivering drinks, particularly as the country ages and the networks around older people grow sparser.

Under a government-linked program launched in 1994, HY, the Korean food company that makes Yakult, coordinate...

The Tokyo-based management company Asobisystem saw a surge in popularity for its artists, including girl group Cutie Street, following its collaboration with Weverse.

A single appearance on a Korean music show helped Japanese girl group Cutie Street find listeners in places that its agency had barely reached before: North America and India.

After the eight-member act appeared on Mnet's "M Countdown" (2004–) in March, one of the most recognizable stages in K-pop's distinctive promotional cycle, the response to its performance resounded far beyond Korea. Interest began to pick up in North America and, more surprisingly, India, where the distinctively frilly girl group had seen very little reaction, according to Yusuke Nakagawa, the founder and CEO of the Tokyo-based management company Asobisystem.

"Establishing a foothold and presence in Korea is extremely important for us as we look to expand our artists' global reach," Nakagawa told reporters during an interview on Sunday. "One thing we realized through Cutie Street is that exposure on Korean music shows leads to increased sales in overseas markets."

Nearby markets, such as Southeast Asia, had already shown signs of interest, Nakagawa said, but India was different, as that was "a market where [Cutie Street] had seen almost no response before."

"So the fact that appearing on a K-pop music show generated new interest there was very significant for us," he explained.

His interview on Sunday was with Moon Ji-soo, the CEO of Weverse Japan, on the second and final day of the 2026 Weverse Con Festival, where Cutie Street opened the day's lineup on the outdoor stage at Olympic Park's 88 Lawn Field.

Asobisystem, founded in 2007, centers its artistic direction on Harajuku culture, a collection of Japanese youth subcultures known for its whimsical and unbridled fashion. The company also operates Kawaii Lab., an umbrella project that includes multiple idol groups, including Cutie Street.

Kawaii Lab. opened channels for five groups comprising 38 artists on Weverse in July last year. Weverse, a fan community platform owned by K-pop powerhouse HYBE, has increasingly expanded its presence beyond K-pop acts with Japanese artists such as imase, Yoasobi and Lilas creating fan communities on the platform since Weverse Japan was established in 2022.

But the collaboration with Weverse extends far beyond the platform itself, as the platform operator also provides consultation and data analysis that help shape promotion strategies.

For Asobisystem, for example, Weverse helped the company access local networks in Korea, drawing on its own promotional machinery and understanding of K-pop's fan culture.

"The buzz that we were able to create in Korea came from our collaboration with Weverse," Nakagawa said. "For Cutie Street, once the concert [at the music festival] was organized, Weverse immediately came to us with proposals. From booking music shows to planning the overall promotion, they consulted with us and supported us throughout the process."

One of the areas in which Weverse Japan helped its Japanese partner was navigating the complexity of K-pop fan culture, including the custom of preparing food, beverages and other small gifts for fans attending music shows to support their favorite artists.

Nakagawa admitted with a smile that he was initially hesitant when he first heard the idea of sending a coffee truck to fans, a practice unfamiliar in Japanese fan culture. But he said that he is now glad that the company went through with it.

Thanks to the collaboration with Weverse Japan, Cutie Street saw its Korean fandom grow fourfold between the group's first Korean concert in March and its upcoming Seoul concert in July, according to Nakagawa.

Another key difference, he added, was the way in which K-pop fans actively bring new listeners into the fandom.

"I was very surprised by how high K-pop fans' social media literacy was," he said. "They would crop and edit music show videos uploaded on Yo...

On Monday, President Lee Jae Myung presented an economic vision of making Korea a "global powerhouse in industries with overwhelming technological gaps" at a press conference. He also said he would unveil large-scale investment projects that would help discover and foster next-generation growth engines beyond semiconductors while ensuring the benefits of growth are broadly shared. This is a desirable direction at a time when our economy's potential growth rate is steadily declining. At the same time, the government should no longer delay and instead must move proactively on regulatory innovation and labor market reform, which are obstructing innovation and growth.

The problem is that the president's understanding of major economic issues — including the "three highs" of a strong dollar-won exchange rate, high inflation and high interest rates, as well as the jeonse (lump-sum deposit) housing shortage — gives the impression of being overly optimistic or fragmentary. President Lee said of the exchange rate situation, "It is true that it is high, but I believe it is temporary." He also said, "Rising stock prices have become the reason the exchange rate has risen." This is similar in context to recent remarks by presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom, who described the three highs as "the cost of success." It is true that the recent surge in the valuation of Korean stocks, which has led foreign investors to sell shares day after day in order to rebalance their portfolios, has been the direct trigger for the recent rise in the exchange rate.

But underlying the high exchange rate are also structural factors such as the prolonged gap in growth rates and interest rates between Korea and the United States, as well as increased overseas investment by companies.

Moreover, concerns are growing that the shock from the three highs could intensify in earnest as expectations build for a U.S. benchmark rate hike. With the semiconductor rally immediately losing steam, the Kospi plunged 8.29 percent on Monday, collapsing below the 7,500 level in one stroke. The drop was unusually steep compared with the fall in the market in Japan at 3.85 percent and Taiwan at 3.48 percent.

This reflects excessive concentration in semiconductors, along with a surge in debt-financed stock investing and leveraged investments by individuals that have heightened volatility. Yields on three-year and 10-year Korean Treasury bonds also rose to their highest levels of the year on Monday. Along with rising U.S. interest rates, President Lee's remarks are said to have had an impact as well. Regarding the use of excess tax revenue, President Lee said, "Having no government debt is not an absolute solution," which the market interpreted as meaning there was no intention to use the extra tax revenue to repay government bonds.

The overall direction of real estate policy, centered on regulations and taxes, also appears unlikely to change much. Regarding the jeonse crisis in particular, which has become a major problem, he said, "Jeonse is a kind of private finance, and it is now disappearing," adding, "A process of normalization is necessary." That may prove true in the long run, but it is questionable whether he fully recognizes the plight of ordinary homeless people who are in distress as jeonse prices soar and jeonse listings sharply decline.

The three highs and the jeonse crisis are livelihood issues that inflict particular pain on ordinary people. Rather than appearing relaxed on the assumption that burdens to livelihoods will soon pass, the government should actively manage the risks and come up with closely tailored measures.

고환율은 일시적, 전세난은 정상화라는 대통령의 경제 인식

어제 이재명 대통령은 기자회견에서 '초격차 산업 강국'이란 경제 비전을 제시했다. 반도체를 이을 차세대 먹거리 발굴·육성과 함께 성장의 온기가 고루 퍼지게 할 대규모 투자 프로젝트도 내놓겠다고 했다. 우리 경제의 잠재성장률이 갈수록 하락하고 있는 상황에서 바람직한 방향이다.

문제는 고환율·고물가·고금리의 '3고'와 전세난 등 주요 경제 현안과 관련된 대통령의 인식이 지나치게 낙관적이거나 단편적이란 인상을 주고 있다는 것이다. 이 대통령은 환율 상황에 대해 "높은 것은 사실이나 일시적이라고 본다"고 말했다. 또 "주가가 오르는 게 환율이 오르는 이유가 됐다"...

Rising food, labor and logistics costs are pushing more Seoul lunch menus above 10,000 won, squeezing restaurant owners and driving diners to cafeterias and convenience stores.

Just a few years ago, 10,000 won ($6.5) for a bowl of gukbap — a bowl of warm soup enjoyed with steamed rice — was considered highway robbery.

In 2026, it's the new normal. Maybe even on the cheap side.

However, this has brought little relief to restaurant owners, who now find themselves trapped in a no-win equation amid ever-worsening inflation: charge more and risk losing customers, or charge less and risk going out of business.

Cheon Jeong-rye, the owner of Songok, a buckwheat noodle restaurant Songok in Bukchang-dong in central Seoul, is bracing for another difficult summer. The restaurant opened in 1965, with Cheon's family running it for two generations.

This summer, however, is proving to be a particularly difficult one among the 65 years of history. The restaurant's signature dish, chilled buckwheat noodles, now costs 11,000 won, up 4,000 won from 7,000 won in 2016. Even its cheapest item, yubu (fried tofu) udon, has risen from 5,500 won to 9,500 won. In less than a decade, prices of both menu items have risen by 4,000 won.

"There isn't a single thing that hasn't become more expensive, whether it's ingredients or labor, so we raised prices once more after Chuseok [Korean autumn harvest holiday] last year," Cheon said. "Regular customers who used to order three servings of noodles now order only two, and that's something I am concerned about."

Cheon no longer employs a dining-room server during the busy lunch rush.

"If I hire someone, there's nothing left over," Cheon said. "I do everything myself now. We need to earn as much as possible during the summer to survive the winter, but these days there are even fewer customers than during the Covid-19 pandemic."

Soaring lunch prices are squeezing both office workers and small-business owners.

On May 29, the JoongAng Ilbo revisited major restaurants in Bukchang-dong, a popular dining district in Seoul's Jung District. The on-site visit came two and three years after the previous surveys in 2023 and 2024.

Of the 28 restaurants surveyed in 2023, only 15 remain in business. The 13 have gone out of business in the past three years. More than half of those remaining establishments — eight out of 15, or 53.3 percent — have raised the prices of their cheapest lunch menu items over the past year and a half.

When the newspaper first conducted its survey in February 2023, 67.9 percent of restaurants surveyed — 19 out of 28 — offered at least one lunch menu item priced below 10,000 won. This year, that share has fallen to 46.7 percent, or seven out of 15 restaurants.

One gukbap restaurant raised the price of its cheapest bowl from 9,000 won in 2023 to 10,000 won in 2024. The dish's price went up to 11,000 won this year.

Even gukbap, once a go-to budget meal, is no longer as affordable as it used to be.

As dining out becomes increasingly burdensome, office workers are turning to corporate cafeterias and convenience stores.

"Although there are plenty of famous restaurants nearby, even their cheapest menu items are usually over 10,000 won," said Choi, an office worker who was dining at a company cafeteria in the Bukchang-dong food alley. "Once you add a side dish and coffee, the bill comes close to 20,000 won, which is financially burdensome."

"Even gimbap [rice roll] costs more than 5,000 won a roll if it has beef [toppings inside]," Choi added. "I'd rather eat at the cafeteria, where I can get rice, soup and several side dishes for 8,900 won."

"I spent nearly 20,000 won for lunch with a 15,000-won meal and a 4,000-won coffee," said Lee, an office worker in the Seocho-dong neighborhood in southern Seoul. "When I'm eating alone, I usually get by on cup noodles and a triangle gimbap from a convenience store for around 8,000 won, and I look for the cheapest coffee I can find." Triangle gimbap is a Korean versio...

With two sold-out stadium concerts in Busan, BTS is raising a question that extends beyond its own tour: Can a Korean city outside the capital region become a regular destination for large-scale K-pop concerts?

For most K-pop artists, touring Korea still largely means performing in Seoul and its surrounding areas.

The logic is hard to ignore. The capital region, including Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi, is home to more than half of the country's population, as well as the industry's biggest venues, agencies, media outlets and production networks. Outside that sprawling metropolitan area, the equation becomes far more complicated.

But BTS is taking its world tour to Busan. And Korea's largest port city is pulsing with anticipation — not only for the two concerts themselves, but for what may come after them.

With two sold-out stadium concerts in Busan, the septet is raising a question that extends beyond its own tour: Can a Korean city outside the capital region become a regular destination for large-scale K-pop concerts?

"I've been so excited to invite you all to my hometown," Jimin said on Oct. 15, 2022, when BTS held its free "Yet To Come in Busan" concert at Busan Asiad Main Stadium as part of the city's bid to host the World Expo.

"We couldn't possibly leave this song out when we are performing in Busan, right?" he added. "Welcome to ma city!"

The group then launched into "Ma City," a 2015 track in which the seven members pay tribute to their hometowns — from Suga and V's Daegu and J-Hope's Gwangju to RM and Jin's Gyeonggi, and Jimin and Jungkook's Busan. Some of the members slipped into their regional dialects, a homecoming written into the group's own music.

A little less than four years later, BTS is returning to the southeastern port city for another concert, this time as part of its ongoing "Arirang" world tour.

BTS opened its "2.0" era after a nearly four-year pause in full-group activities with its fifth full-length album, "Arirang," released on March 20. The group kicked off its world tour with three shows at Goyang Main Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi, just west of Seoul, before heading to the United States, where the tour drew 840,000 fans.

Now, BTS is coming home again — and doing so at a particularly symbolic moment.

The Busan concerts coincide with the group's 13th anniversary of its debut on June 13, which BTS will mark with the 2026 BTS Festa, its annual celebration with fans.

The "Arirang" world tour is scheduled to take place in Busan on June 12 and 13 at Asiad Main Stadium.

The timing explains why the group had to return to Korea at this point in the tour, while Busan in particular carries sentimental weight as the hometown of Jimin and Jungkook.

BigHit Music, BTS's agency, has billed the concerts as "a special homecoming."

"BTS will return to Busan for the first time in about four years for a special 'homecoming,'" the agency said in a release in May. "The project is especially meaningful as it takes place around June 13, the anniversary of BTS's debut."

The Busan stop, however, is unusual enough to draw attention.

Major K-pop concerts in Korea remain heavily concentrated in Seoul and the wider capital region, while full-scale domestic tours across multiple Korean cities have become relatively uncommon for idol acts, especially established ones. As K-pop has grown into a global touring industry, many major groups now begin their live tours with Seoul-area shows followed by overseas legs, rather than multiple stops within Korea.

"Artists do sometimes hold nationwide tours, but the facilities are not always ideal, and there are not many large-scale venues," said a source from a K-pop agency, who requested anonymity. "Busan Asiad Main Stadium is a good venue, but not every artist can fill a venue of that size. Smaller than that, the facilities there are unlikely to be ideal."

Even when venue capacity is not the problem, infrastructure can be.

"For us, domestic concerts are important, but because man...

The Korean mountains are not to be underestimated, with a slew of accidents in May

On the slopes of Baegundae, the highest peak in Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul, the queue of climbers grinds to a halt on a spring day in early May. A young woman grips onto the steel rail running up the steep rocky slab.

Tears roll down her cheeks, her breath is hasty — she tries to compose herself. Hikers descending in the other direction offer words of encouragement, and she manages a panicked chuckle before pressing on.

Getting into the mountains is extremely easy in Korea. Trails are accessible by public transport and well-maintained. This is a major factor drawing troves of foreign visitors to Korea's national parks. However, that accessibility can be dangerous, leading beginner-level hikers to take on dicey routes that require experience and correct gear.

The last hour of climbing Baegundae is not for the faint of heart. In multiple sections, the lanky steel rail is the only thing keeping climbers from slipping down a dome of rock that quickly goes vertical.

The young woman's fear was completely justified. The month of May made it clear that the mountains are unpredictable.

An 11-year-old boy was found dead from a fatal fall after going missing in Mount Juwang, North Gyeongsang, on May 12.

Two hikers suffered falls of five and seven meters in Mount Seorak over Buddha's Birthday weekend, with a third hiker collapsing from cardiac arrest.

Danger in numbers

The heights aren't the main problem — it's the sheer number of climbers that flock to the mountains on a sunny weekend or public holiday. Take Mount Bukhan on Children's Day, a public holiday. Being just an hour away from central Seoul by bus, it was crawling with people.

The same goes for Mount Gwanak in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, which has become even more popular due to the recent belief that reaching its peak brings good luck.

Mount Seorak in Gangwon to the east near the coastal city of Sokcho is also highly popular and just a three-hour bus ride away.

The steep, narrow stairs of Mount Bukhan, built into the mountainside, combined with the number of people climbing them, mean that only one person must lose their footing for the rest to fall like dominoes.

There's also the grueling wait in the queue for the summit, where hikers are exposed to baking hot sun on the exposed ridgeline, vulnerable to dehydration or heat stroke.

The same goes for other peaks and parks in Korea.

At Mount Gwanak, there are tamer options for reaching its apex, Yeonjudae, than Mount Bukhan, but there's also no one to stop you from traversing its razor-sharp ridge, which lacks protective rails.

While some climbers carefully navigated Yeonjudae's rocky spine, three boys in baggy jeans, blasting K-rap, leaped from rock to rock, overtaking the cautious climbers at the peril of everyone, themselves most of all.

Foreign visitors to the parks have increased dramatically. Over 2 million foreigners visited Korean national parks in 2025, a 131 percent increase from 2024, when 885,000 foreign visitors were recorded.

There were 123 incidents in the parks in 2025 — 10 fatalities and 113 injuries. This was five more incidents than in 2024.

The surge hasn't let up in 2026.

At Mount Seorak, crowds of hikers surged through the gates at the crack of dawn to get a taste of the mountains after the 73-day spring closure.

Approximately 16,000 walked the mountain that day.

Korean National Park Service spokesperson Choi Seung-hwan said there are risks associated with increased visitor numbers, but rescue and safety measures have been stepped up to address them.

There were 22 cases of illegal or disorderly behavior, including entering unauthorized trails, bivouacking and illegally dumping trash over that opening May weekend.

Few checks and balances

Climbers raced to Seoraksan as early as 2 a.m. to miss the crowds and catch the sunrise.

Ascending Daecheongbong, the park's highest mountain, from the Sokcho-facing side off...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, chain-smoking and frowning from the dais of an expanded meeting of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee secretariat on Jan. 27, 2025, lashed out at his own ranks.

"This is a special-grade crime that our party cannot forgive even a little bit," Kim said.

The target of his anger was a group of some 40 party officials in Onchon County, South Pyongan Province, who, North Korean media reported, had spent the year-end holidays drinking with female volunteers and engaging in promiscuous behavior at a hot springs resort.

Onchon was no ordinary county. It was one of the 20 sites selected for the first year of Kim's signature Regional Development 20×10 Policy, an initiative to build modern light-industry factories in 20 rural areas every year for a decade. The misconduct occurred just before the county's Jan. 20, 2025, factory opening ceremony.

Within a week of the ribbon-cutting, Kim ordered the officials to be sternly punished.

Why did the leader react so sharply to the misbehavior of a handful of mid-level local officials? The answer lies in a speech he had given about a month earlier.

On Dec. 20, 2024, at the completion ceremony for new provincial factories in Songchon County, South Pyongan Province — the showcase site for the policy and the first to break ground — Kim suddenly invoked the 1962 Changsong Joint Conference, the meeting at which his grandfather Kim Il Sung outlined his vision for raising rural living standards. That meeting has been treated for more than half a century as North Korean scripture on regional policy.

"Why has the policy on local industry not been carried through even now, more than 60 years later? It is because there have been no clear standards or principles," Kim Jong-un said.

He went on to mock past propaganda about Changsong — "all they did was make documentary films and write songs about how Changsong had been transformed" — and acknowledged that "from the 1990s, the factories essentially came to a complete halt," a rare public reference to the famine years of the Arduous March under his father, late leader Kim Jong-il.

It was a striking move. As the first fruit of his regional development drive came online, Kim Jong-un publicly conceded the failures of the Paektu bloodline — North Korea's ruling Kim clan — and cast himself as the one who would finally do what founder Kim Il Sung had not. The Onchon misconduct, in that light, was not a small embarrassment. It was a challenge to a historic project that Kim Jong-un has called a "sacred and great undertaking."

Kim, who, as a young leader, had cultivated a physical resemblance to his grandfather, down to his hair and speech, was now testing whether his 20×10 policy could surpass the achievements of the man he had spent his life imitating.

Whether it has succeeded has been hard to determine from the ground, so the JoongAng Ilbo turned to the night sky.

Nighttime light intensity levels — a widely used proxy for real economic activity in countries that, like North Korea, release little reliable economic data — show that power briefly flooded into all 20 first-year sites in 2024. But those sites did not remain lit. Where did the light come from, and where did it all go?

A KAIST-Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy joint research team led by professors Kim Ji-hee and Cha Mee-young used satellite imagery to track nighttime brightness across 178 of North Korea's cities and counties — with Pyongyang's 18 districts treated as one — from January 2022 to October 2025. Drawing on that data, the team compared the brightness in October 2023, before the first batch of counties was named, with the brightness in October 2025, after the new factories had opened.

Analysis showed insufficient power to keep all 20 sites lit. Instead, the lights appeared to embrace a very Kim Jong-un approach: strategic selectivity.

Of the 20 first-year counties, only five were brighter at night in 2025 than they were in 2023: Kusong, Son...