Seo Yoo A is an Instagram influencer who rose to fame thanks to her doll-like features enhanced with not-so-subtle digital editing tools and filters.

It’s no secret that Instagram is full of young, attractive influencers who use their God-given or surgically enhanced assets to build a fanbase and gain popularity, but South Korea appears to have launched a whole new trend – digitally enhanced models who aren’t afraid to go all out with the editing. Last week, we featured Shasheile, an influencer whose photos were so heavily edited that people actually found them refreshing, but it turns out she is not the only one using this unusual social media technique. Seo Yoo A is another rising Instagram star whose conspicuous use of Photoshop and other editing tools has won her hundreds of thousands of fans.

Read More »

A 16-year-old teenager from South Korea has been accused of forcefully practicing his tattooing skills on two younger schoolmates that he had allegedly been bullying for years.

A disturbing school bullying case has been making news headlines in South Korea and sparking outrage among parents. The Incheon Nonhyeon Police Department has confirmed that it is currently investigating a bullying case in which the assailant is accused of forcefully tattooing at least two younger teenagers, both as a way of branding them and practicing his tattooing skills. The parents of the first victim filed a complaint in March, after accidentally discovering a large and amateurishly-inked tattoo on their son’s leg. After confronting the boy, they learned that he had been forcefully tattooed by a schoolmate who had been terrorizing him for at least two years.

Read More »

A gang of eight was recently apprehended just as they were about to reach their goal – an oil pipeline – after spending a whole month digging a secret tunnel to it from their hotel.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency recently reported the capture of eight criminals who had rented an entire hotel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, and spent an entire month digging a secret underground tunnel from it to a nearby oil pipeline. The plan is believed to have been masterminded by a former employee of Korea’s state-run pipeline operator Daehan Oil Pipeline Corporation who had been previously fired for attempting to steal oil from another pipeline. They had rented a hotel near their target under the pretext of wanting to acquire it, and spent most of their day digging using rudimentary tools in order to avoid attracting attention with loud noises.

Read More »

A Chinese couple visiting South Korea took revenge on the Airbnb host who refused to cancel their booking by using over 120 tonnes of water as well as thousands of dollars worth of gas, electricity and other utilities.

A Seoul Airbnb owner recently experienced a nightmare scenario in which guests went out of their way to waste as much water, electricity, and gas as possible during their stay. It all started when a Chinese couple booked a stand-alone villa in Seoul on Airbnb for 25 days without checking its location in the South Korean capital. When they arrived and realized the place was in the outer suburbs, they decided to contact the owner and ask for a refund, claiming that traveling to and from the city center was too inconvenient. However, the host refused, arguing that the booking had been confirmed and the payment made in full. The couple seemed to accept the situation, but they were secretly plotting to make the host pay…

Read More »

Eternity is an A.I.-generated virtual K-pop idol group consisting of 11 members created using advanced deep-fake technology.

K-pop has really taken the world by storm in recent years, with groups like BTS and Black Pink conquering market after market with their catchy songs and energetic dance routines. The genre has become one of South Korea’s main exports, generating tens of billions in revenue, but despite its massive international success, the massive corporations behind the K-pop wave aren’t resting on their laurels. Instead, they are constantly looking for ways to stay relevant in this constantly changing industry, and artificial intelligence is apparently the next big thing. So it’s not that big of a surprise that A.I.-generated virtual K-pop groups are already a thing.

Read More »

A South Korean civil court recently ordered a 31-year-old man to pay his ex-girlfriend 1.5 million won ($1,150) as damages for urinating in her designer handbag.

This bizarre story dates back to last October, when the defendant in this case, a 31-year-old man from Seoul, South Korea, whose identity has not been revealed, for privacy purposes, allegedly got into an argument with his girlfriend at the time. The two were at the girlfriend’s house in Gangnam-gu, and somehow started fighting about the amounts of money the woman was spending and the debts she was racking up. At one point, the man allegedly went into the bedroom, brought out one of his girlfriend’s Louis Vuitton handbags, unbuttoned his pants, and started urinating in it right there in front of her. She didn’t like that very much, so she filed a complaint against him with the police.

Read More »

KFC fast food restaurants across South Korea recently introduced a bizarre new dip for its fried chicken and it has been raising eyebrows for both its unusual color and flavor – mint chocolate.

In case you didn’t know, a mint chocolate craze is sweeping South Korea these days, and companies are trying to take advantage of it. Major South Korean companies like Starbucks Korea, Haitai Confectionery and Foods, or Orion have all added mint chocolate-flavored products to their lineups. The latest to do so is fast food giant KFC, which recently launched a mint chocolate dip. Featuring a somewhat off-putting light blue color and gooey texture, the unique fried chicken dip recently went viral on social media.

Read More »

A 24-year-old woman became the talk of South Korean social media this month after it was revealed that she managed to save up 100 million won ($79,400) in 4 years by being extremely thrifty.

Ji-hyeon Kwak started working when she was 19-year-old and quickly realized that she needed to save money if she was ever going to get her own place to live. Despite earning an average of 2 million won per month (after tax), the young woman managed to put enough aside every month to save over 100 million won in the last four years. That was enough for her to win an apartment subscription, which means she will soon get her own place to live. But, as you can imagine, saving that much money on such a small salary wasn’t easy. She had to take her thriftiness to an extreme level, which included spending just 8,400 won ($6.7) on food per month.

Read More »

In South Korea, people who can’t convince their neighbors to keep the noise down are increasingly turning to expensive but effective sound systems designed specifically to irritate neighbors.

South Korean media first started reporting on these specialized sound systems back in 2016, when they were viewed as an almost funny way that some apartment building neighbors used to settle their disputes regarding noise. However, as time went by, they became incredibly popular as they delivered on the promise of making next-door or above-floor neighbors pay for ignoring requests to keep noise levels down. There are now different types of wall-mounted speakers designed specifically to annoy.

Read More »

A new type of South Korean face mask that only covers the wearer’s nose has been getting a lot of attention from the western press lately.

Called ‘kosk” –  a combination of ‘ko’, the Korean word for nose, and ‘mask’ – the unusual face mask sold by South Korean company Atman consists of two parts, one of which can be removed to leave the wearer’s mouth exposed. They are apparently designed to provide some level of protection against Covid while eating, but can also be worn in nose-only mode at any time. Kosk is just one of the nose-only face masks available in South Korea these days, and the unusual trend has sparked some controversy in the western world, with many declaring the facial accessories utterly useless.

Read More »

South Korean media recently reported the bizarre and sad story of an elderly couple who spent the last decade of their lives hoarding tons of trash for their 40-something son who refused to leave the house and find a job.

SBS, a South Korean national television network presented the shocking story of Choi, a 75-year-old man from Gwangju, who over the last decade turned his two-storey house into a dump full of garbage gathered from the city streets and from trash cans. Convinced that one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure, the pensioner literally filled up his entire house with junk, before doing the same with the balconies and even the yard. As you can see from the photos below, the house was quite literally buried in trash.

Read More »

A member of a popular South Korean K-pop group has been getting a lot of attention because of his unusual hairstyle – long bangs that completely cover the upper half his face, including his eyes.

Junji (준지) is one of the seven members of OnlyOneOf, an all-male K-pop group founded in 2019. He’s easy to identify among his band mates, as he’s the one with the face half covered by long, blonde bangs. He’s been sporting the bizarre hairstyle since January 2020, and has managed to generate quite a lot of buzz in South Korean entertainment business, because of it. Some people have been speculating that Junji is trying to conceal his looks because he wants fans to like him for more than just looks, others that he is simply not as handsome as the other six members, but the important thing is that they’ve been talking about him a lot.

Read More »

South Korean beauty brand Innisfree has attracted a lot of criticism after a bottle labeled as being made of paper turned out to be plastic simply wrapped in thin cardboard.

Innisfree,  a company that specializes in naturally-inspired beauty products, apparently didn’t expect anyone to actually check if the bottle for its face serum was actually made of paper, as suggested by the texture of the packaging and the “Hello, I’m paper bottle” branding printed on it. Only someone did check, slicing open the thin cardboard only to find a regular plastic bottle inside. This person posted photos of their discover on a Facebook group called “No Plastic Shopping,” and it didn’t take long for them to go viral.

Read More »

Virtual reality has the potential to change our lives in a number of ways, one of which is apparently the possibility to reunite with loved ones who have passed away.

South Korean television MBC recently started broadcasting season two of its hit documentary,  너를 만났다 (“I Met You”), a unique program that uses state-of-the-art VR gear and software to reunite people with their departed loved ones and allow them to make one more memory together. The network spends months on each case, putting together an emotional reunion in virtual reality, but while the response from the public has been generally positive, there are critics who describe it as emotionally manipulative.

Read More »

Shiltarae bingsu, or stringed shaved ice, is a modern take on a popular South Korean treat that consists of amazingly fine ice shavings that look like super-thin pasta.

You’ve probably heard of spaghetti ice-cream before, but this is nothing like that. Shiltarae bingsu is reportedly an incredibly airy and creamy treat that not only looks good but tastes great as well. It was allegedly invented a few years back by Seoul-based café and dessert lab Tiravento, and has since become a staple dessert, and a sought-after props for Instagram users. There is no denying the visual appeal of this treat, as the shaved ice actually looks like noodles before it starts to melt.

Read More »