Election watchdog raided again over alleged data manipulation The entrance to an office of the National Election Commission (NEC) is seen in Seoul on Aug. 7, 2026. Investigators from a joint prosecution-police task force began a search and seizure at the NEC’s headquarters in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, and other local commissions in the capital, Gyeonggi and North Chungcheong provinces to secure evidence over suspicions of data manipulation in connection with the June 3 local elections. (Yonhap)
Modern eating habits are definitely changing in South Korea:
Koreans are consuming significantly less kimchi than in the past despite the surge in global popularity of the country’s signature side dish, data showed Sunday.
According to a joint study by researchers from Chung-Ang University, Jeju National University, and the World Institute of Kimchi, the proportion of Koreans who reported eating no kimchi within the past 24 hours jumped from 11.7 percent in 2010 to 22.7 percent in 2024.
This makes me wonder if there are other instances of this going on and this is just the one time it was caught:
The national football association apologized Saturday over allegations that it provided sexual entertainment to foreign referees before and after international matches held in the country between 2011 and 2012.
The apology came after a 2016 government audit showed that the Korea Football Association (KFA) used corporate credit cards to pay for sexual entertainment for visiting referees at massage parlors and other adult establishments in Seoul and other cities that hosted international matches between March 2011 and March 2012.
On the morning of the 4th, the forest bath park water play area in Sangsodong, Dong-gu, Daejeon, where a record-breaking heatwave approaching 40 degrees Celsius continues day after day. As one enters under the dense shade created by lush trees that have withstood decades, the scorching heat that bakes the asphalt disappears as if by magic. /Shin Hyun-jong
The reason the land hasn’t been handed over is equally the fault of the Korean government. Negotiations on where to put the Combined Forces Command Headquarters and the U.S. embassy housing are still ongoing. Additionally, all the complaining from the environmental groups still has portions of the projected parkland going through environmental mitigation before being turned into a park:
During the briefing session, Lee also zeroed in on delays in reclaiming land that previously housed United States Forces Korea (USFK) facilities, even after U.S. troops relocated to Pyeongtaek, some 60 kilometers south of Seoul.
“We spent more than 10 trillion won (US$7 billion) to build the Pyeongtaek base,” the president said.
“It is a real problem that (land used for former U.S. military bases) is not being returned for one reason or another, and that even after it is returned, it is effectively unusable because of various restrictions,” he said.
Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the USFK has been passive on the issue and that Seoul is urging it to make progress.
S. Korean Air Force joins multinational exercise in Australia A KF-16 fighter jet of South Korea’s Air Force enters the airspace over Mindil Beach in Darwin, Australia, in a flight to wish for the success the biennial Pitch Black exercise, in this undated photo released by the South Korean Air Force on Aug. 4, 2026. The multinational joint exercise, which began on July 17 and runs through Aug. 7, involved troops and some 110 aircraft from 16 nations, including the United States, Spain and Germany. (Yonhap)
