Recent Blog Posts
42.5! Korea Hits All-Time High Temp as Typhoon Dolphin Nears Peninsula
Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province reached 42.5 degrees Celsius at 1:26 p.m. on Sunday, August 2. That is the highest temperature ever measured in Korea since modern weather observation began in 1904, surpassing the 41.4 degrees logged at the same station on July 31. It was the fifth straight day Yangsan cleared 40 degrees.
Gamcheon Village Gets Visiting Hours as Busan Confronts Overtourism
Saha-gu formally designated 감천문화마을 (Gamcheon Culture Village) a special management zone on July 31, making it the third such designation in the country after Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village and Yeoncheon-gun in Gyeonggi-do. The measure divides the village into four zones with different rules, restricts tourist access to residential streets outside the hours of 9am to 6pm, limits vehicle traffic along part of 감내2로, and requires groups of ten or more to buy a map.
Korean Cities Can Now Write Their Own Visa Rules
Korea now runs two visa programs in which a local government, not the immigration office, decides who qualifies. Under both, an applicant must obtain a recommendation from a city, county, or provincial office before immigration will consider the application at all, and the criteria differ from one jurisdiction to the next.
The practical consequence is that the answer to whether you qualify for these visas depends on where in Korea you intend to live, and that checking with immigration first is the wrong order of operations.
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Korea Hit Its 300,000 International Student Target Two Years Early
Korea hosted 314,397 international students as of February 2026, according to Korean Immigration Service figures. That clears the government's Study Korea 300K target, which had set 300,000 by 2027, roughly two years ahead of schedule and against expert predictions that it would be missed.
The number has doubled in five years, from just over 153,300. It has grown while the domestic school-age population has fallen, which is the part of the story that explains why universities pursued it.
BTS Withdraws From the Grammys Over the New Asian Pop Category
All seven members of BTS announced on July 29 that they will not submit music for the 69th Grammy Awards, which take place on February 7, 2027. The statement, posted individually to Instagram, said they hoped their music would be heard and loved for what it is rather than divided by language or region. It did not name the reason.