Joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korea have raised tensions in the region. Thursday's exchange was the first time the North and South had traded fire in five years.
Most every country has its myths. In South Korea, there's an enduring belief that if you fall asleep with an electric fan on, you're risking your life.
The reclusive authoritarian regime has announced that it will turn back its clocks half an hour beginning next week to mark 70 years since liberation from Japan.
Baby showers, weddings, even meet-the-parent weekends don't have to include your actual loved ones, at least not in South Korea. A cottage casting industry exists to help fill your life-staging needs.
More than 80 percent of people in South Korea live in cities. But in the past few years, there has been a shift. Tens of thousands of South Koreans are relocating to the countryside each year.
In recent weeks, NPR's Ari Shapiro has been reporting from Seoul. He's found South Koreans take great pride in their country's progress over the past 50 years, but it's often tempered by nostalgia.
In South Korea, Buddhist temple food is viewed the way spa food is in the U.S.: curative, cleansing, perhaps even medicinal. Buddhist nuns have preserved these cooking techniques for 1,600 years.
A half-century ago, Japan and South Korea normalized diplomatic ties. But to celebrate, both are having to put aside long-standing bitterness that has never completely gone away.
In Seoul, a parade that has gone on for 15 years is at the heart of a bitter standoff between organizers and Christian activists. Church groups threaten to stop the parade — in the name of God.