30 May 2010, Posted by Matt in Best of DK.com, Food & Drink, Nature, Seoul, 9 Comments

Yongsan’s Foreign Footprints

South of Mt. Namsan lie some of Seoul’s most multicultural neighborhoods like Ichon-dong and Haebangchon – streets and restaurants where faces and languages other than Korean predominate.

23 May 2010, Posted by Matt in Art & Culture, Best of DK.com, Seoul, Shopping, 3 Comments

Seoul’s Folk Flea Market

This market sells everything under the sun, from Joseon-era pottery and a knight’s helmet to a real tiger pelt. It’s a great place to get one-of-a-kind gifts for friends and family.

21 May 2009, Posted by Matt in Historic Korea, Seoul, Video, 6 Comments

Gyeongbokgung Palace

(A version of this video was uploaded to the KBS World site on May 20, 2009.)

01 Apr 2009, Posted by Matt in Festivals & Holidays, Historic Korea, Nature, Seoul, 0 Comments

Seoul’s Yeouido Island

An artist’s rendering of Yeouido’s future, now that height restrictions for the island have been lifted (from Yonhap News).

At about 8.4 square kilometers, Yeouido (여의도) is by far Seoul’s largest island. But despite its strategic location in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities, the name “yeouido” actually means, “you can have it.” In the past, this now very valuable piece of real estate was thought to be worthless, since most of the island disappeared when the Han River frequently flooded. As a result, for centuries Yeouido was generally relegated to pastureland and peanut fields. The first major development didn’t occur until 1924, when the Japanese colonial government built Seoul’s first airport there.

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11 Mar 2009, Posted by Matt in Diaspora, Historic Korea, Notes from Matt, 2 Comments

The Korean Diaspora (Intro)

A Russian postage stamp featuring the very popular (half-Korean) Soviet rock star, Viktor Robertovich Tsoi.

Early maps that show great detail in Japan and China depict a curiously blank Korean peninsula (which is sometimes drawn as an island). For centuries, the West called Korea the “Hermit Kingdom” for its zealous control of who could enter or exit its territory. But the Joseon Dynasty‘s deterioration in the late 19th century brought the Korea’s first major exodus, as hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans left and called China, Japan and the Russian Far East home.

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09 Dec 2008, Posted by Matt in Historic Korea, Nature, Seoul, 7 Comments

The Cheonggyecheon Stream

Much has been written about the Cheonggyecheon (청계천), the 5.8-km restored stream that magically starts in the heart of downtown Seoul and courses through the neighborhoods of Jongno and Dongdaemun before it meets the Jungnangcheon (중랑천) and eventually empties into the mighty Han River.

Completed in 2005, the restoration of the historic waterway was a major success for then Seoul mayor (now president) Lee Myung-bak. It gave the former Hyundai Construction executive international plaudits and “green” credentials as the Cheonggyecheon (“cheon” means stream in Korean) was regarded by many as a major success in urban renewal and beautification. Beauty didn’t come cheap. The initial price tag was estimated to be 900 billion won (approx. $900 million), but an additional $12 trillion won is expected to redevelop the adjacent neighborhoods into major commercial and residential areas.

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28 Oct 2008, Posted by Matt in Historic Korea, Seoul, 17 Comments

Seoul’s North Village: Bukchon

A mom walks her brightly-clad, school-bound kids down an alley in Seoul’s historic Bukchon neighborhood. The modern Samseong Tower is in the distance.

(A version of this text aired on KBS World Radio on October 18, 2008.)

During the Joseon Dynasty, Seoul had both a north village and a south village. While the south village was home to lower ranking officials, the north village, called Bukchon (북촌), was built between Gyeongbuk and Changdeok palaces, and was historically home to high ranking palace officials.

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04 Oct 2008, Posted by Matt in Gyeonggi, Historic Korea, 5 Comments

The House of Sharing

Former Korean sexual slaves at a press conference in Washington, D.C. in July 2007 (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP).

(A version of this text aired on KBS World Radio on October 4, 2008.)

About 45-minutes southeast of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province is a special place called the House of Sharing. Built in 1995, the house is home to seven elderly Korean women between the ages of 77 and 86. But the house and the halmonis (할머니), or grandmothers, who live there have painful stories to tell. During World War Two, they were what many called weeanbu (위안부) or “comfort women”, survivors of the Japanese military’s systematic sexual enslavement of as many as 200,000 girls and young women from all across Asia.

The largest number of them were Koreans. And after being coerced or kidnapped to serve the Japanese military’s soldiers, they endured systematic rape and venereal disease, and many emerged from the war alone and impoverished, traumatized by their experiences and physically unable to have children.

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