China's 'mala' sauce breaks Korea's culinary boundaries

As Korea confirmed a natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Encinal, Texas, will be the first project under its $200 billion strategic investment commitment to the United States, power purchase agreements (PPAs) with potential power buyers are emerging as a key factor in determining the project’s commercial viability. In a National Assembly briefing on Tuesday, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the project will be worth $22.3 billion, with planned generating capacity reaching 6.3 gigawatts. The project will initially build a 1.4-gigawatt gas turbine power plant to assess actual demand and economic viability, before gradually expanding it with 4.9 gigawatts of more efficient combined-cycle generation capacity. The project will be funded entirely by Korea, while ownership will be split equally between Seoul and Washington. Electricity generated from the plant is expected to power artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the region. In selecting the gas plant as the first project, the government considered “commercial reasonableness,” stipulated as a key condition in

“Schools have gay people, too!” That was the message of support from a teacher in a booklet published ahead of the launch of the Sexual Minorities Committee of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU). On March 1, the committee became the union’s first-ever body dedicated to sexual minorities. It brings together LGBTQ+ teachers and teachers who support them. Their shared hope is that LGBTQ+ students will encounter at least one teacher who supports them during their years at school. On the evening of Sept. 14, The Hankook Ilbo spoke by phone with “Mo,” the committee’s inaugural chairperson, who uses a pseudonym as an activist. Schools ask about gender every day Mo is a 13-year veteran elementary school teacher. At the first staff meeting held at the school where Mo currently works, Mo proposed eliminating a numbering system that divides students by gender. Under the system, the 30 students in a class are divided into boys and girls, with boys assigned numbers starting with 1 and girls from 16, in alphabetical order. The students are then divided into “boys’ team

A Sungkyunkwan University research team has developed an innovative cancer treatment platform in collaboration with researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). Sungkyunkwan University said the platform is designed to simultaneously identify cancer cells and the surrounding cells that support them and block communication between the two at its source by suppressing the production of extracellular vesicles. The team was led by professor Yang Yoo-soo of the university’s department of integrative biotechnology. It collaborated with a KIST research team headed by Dr. Shim Man-kyu. Cancer does not grow through the efforts of cancer cells alone. Surrounding the cancer cells are cancer-associated fibroblasts and various immune cells that act like collaborators, forming a complex community known as the tumor microenvironment. These cells communicate with one another by exchanging tiny packages called extracellular vesicles, which carry signaling molecules between cells. Through this exchange, cancer cells gain advantages that promote their growth and spread to other orga

With North Jeolla Province pushing to co-host the 2036 Summer Olympics with Seoul, the capital city's government remains hesitant to respond to the proposal, following its own elimination from the domestic selection process. North Jeolla Province officials said the provincial government submitted a joint hosting proposal to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and is currently awaiting a response. Insiders, however, say it would be challenging for the two governments to iron out the details of the co-hosting arrangement as both would want to hold the major events, including the opening ceremony. “They will find it hard to narrow their differences because both sides would want the key events ... Seoul had already lost the initial domestic bid to North Jeolla Province. While Seoul would readily host the event on its own, a joint bid is a completely different matter, as it involves significant taxpayer money,” a government official familiar with the matter told The Korea Times. It has been reported that the metropolitan government told the province that under a joint bid, the capital would

North Jeolla Province has approached Seoul about joining its bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics as a co-host, fueling speculation that the province's bid for the provincial city, Jeonju, to host the games is losing momentum amid concerns about a lack of necessary infrastructure. Although the provincial government says it is not giving up its bid to host the Games on its own but is adopting a strategy to increase its chances of being selected, the co-hosting offer shows it is facing a growing burden over its lack of necessary facilities. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has since postponed its review of the province's plan for the event hosting. Provincial government officials said North Jeolla Gov. Lee Won-taeg recently met with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon to discuss co-hosting the upcoming Olympics. “The governor met with Seoul officials to discuss the broader framework for a joint bid, and we are currently awaiting Seoul’s official response. At the working level, we have formally requested that they submit their proposal on the co-hosting arrangement, and working-level officia

Sejong University held a ceremony Sept. 4 to welcome back members of its World Friends Korea (WFK) IT Sejong Overseas Volunteer Corps, the university said. The event was held to share the results of the volunteers’ activities in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan, last month and recognize the students who took part in educational and cultural exchange programs. The WFK-IT Volunteer Corps, organized by the National Information Society Agency, is a program that seeks to bridge the global digital divide by providing information technology education and carrying out projects in partner countries with limited access to digital technologies, while helping Korean IT talent develop global capabilities. Sejong University was selected in April to operate the WFK-IT Volunteer Corps this year and formed its volunteer team under the leadership of the Sejong Community Service Foundation and the National Program of Excellence in Software. The volunteer corps provided customized IT education and organized Korean cultural exchange activities in Jizzakh from Aug. 1-17. During the first week, the volunteers provided bas

Several translation errors were found in a Ministry of National Defense glossary meant to help soldiers unfamiliar with the Korean language, raising questions about the ministry's vetting process as the number of troops from multicultural backgrounds continues to grow. In August, the ministry said it had compiled the glossary to explain 562 common military terms such as "salute" and "roll call" for soldiers with overseas permanent residency and those from multicultural backgrounds. The words, compiled from observations of a soldier's daily routine, were translated into English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish and Japanese, posted on the Military Manpower Administration's website and distributed in print to new recruits. But the glossary was plagued with translation errors. In the English version, the Korean word for "petty officer" was mistranslated as "pretty officer." The Korean word meaning "checking the chamber for rounds after firing" was rendered instead as "Weather conditions such as rain, snow, or strong winds that restrict activities," an unrelated sentence about the weather. The te

Multiple helicopters flew over the Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Tuesday evening, prompting unease among some nearby residents as it coincided with President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to New York. The flights were part of a nighttime training exercise conducted by the Capital Defense Command, according to the Ministry of National Defense. The ministry explained that such drills are occasionally held when the president is outside the country. The ministry had not responded to further questions about the details, such as the number of helicopters involved and the specific purpose and flight routes of the exercise. Although it was a drill, the fact that an unusually large number of helicopters were mobilized and were flying after sunset drew unease among residents nearby. The uneasiness was partially because of the memory of the Dec. 3, 2025, martial law imposition by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol, when a dozen helicopters flew to the National Assembly in Yeouido to arrest opposition leaders. A resident living near Cheong Wa Dae said the chopper noise was unusually frequent and loud compared with n

The number of babies born in Korea rose 11.1 percent in July from a year earlier, marking the 25th consecutive month of increases, government data showed Wednesday. A total of 24,275 babies were born in July, up from 21,854 a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It marked the highest figure for any July since 25,222 recorded in 2019. The country's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, rose 0.08 from a year earlier to 0.89 in July. The rate remains well below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration. The number of births has maintained an upward trajectory since July 2024. Over the January-July period, 170,079 babies were born, up 14.7 percent from a year earlier. It was the highest figure for the period since 2019. The recent rebound came amid a growing number of marriages, an increase in the population in their 30s and more positive attitudes toward having children. The number of marriages in July rose 9.3 percent from a year earlier to 22,282. The number of di

The number of Koreans who moved to new residences decreased in August from a year earlier amid a recent decline in housing transactions, data showed Wednesday. Around 471,000 people changed residences in August, down 22,000 from a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It was the lowest figure for any August in 53 years since the 420,000 recorded in 1973. The population mobility rate — the number of people relocating per 100 residents -- fell 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier to 10.9 percent. The data ministry attributed the decrease to declines in housing transactions and new home supplies. "The number of homes traded in June and July totaled 132,000, down 4.4 percent from a year earlier. Over the same period, the number of apartment units completed came to 43,000, down 29.1 percent," an official from the data ministry said. By region, Seoul reported a net outflow of 2,901 people, while South Gyeongsang Province and the southwestern Jeonnam-Gwangju area posted net outflows of 1,230 and 1,081, respectively. In contrast, Gyeonggi Province reported

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Wednesday appealed an appellate ruling sentencing her to five years in prison on bribery-related charges, taking the case to the Supreme Court, legal sources said. The Seoul High Court convicted Kim, the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, on charges of accepting bribes for mediation in a Tuesday ruling that partially overturned a lower court's seven-year sentence. A special counsel team earlier indicted Kim on charges of receiving various expensive gifts from multiple people in return for job appointments and business favors between 2022 and 2023. While a district court convicted her on all counts in June, the appellate court acquitted her of charges of receiving a luxury watch and a replica of a Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) painting. The special counsel team has also indicated that it plans to take the case to the top court.

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said Wednesday it has sent part of the results of its inspection into the state election watchdog to the special prosecutor team investigating ballot shortages in June's local elections. The BAI conducted a financial audit of the National Election Commission (NEC) from July 6 to Aug. 28 to look into whether there were any irregularities that could have contributed to the unprecedented shortages of voting papers in the June 3 elections. The results have not yet been made public. The data handed over to the independent counsel team involved six cases related to budget execution for major elections, including interference with bidding, unfair private contracts, and wrongful inspections, as they were deemed to require a swift investigation, the BAI said. The BAI did not disclose further details. The agency explained that it decided to share the data ahead of the official audit announcement because the special prosecutor team has only 150 days to investigate the case and related materials should be provided in time.