London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

LKL at 10 years: what has changed?

London Korean Links went online 10 years ago, on 1 March 2006. What has changed over that time, and how might things change over the next 10 years? For a start, there’s more of everything. More people following Korean culture in London, more events to follow. When London Korean Links started, it was a reasonable … [Read More]

Looking back at 2015: Domestic news

Our final look back at 2015: mainly domestic news stories from South Korea. In the news After 62 years of adultery being a criminal offence in the ROK, the constitutional court decided to decriminalise it by a vote of 7 to 2.  Four out of ten married Korean males heaved a sigh of relief  and shares … [Read More]

The Good Friday transatlantic K-blog meetup

9 o’clock in the morning on the Good Friday bank holiday at a Hammersmith coffee shop might not seem the likeliest place for a K-blog meetup. But Roy Ghim, from the Tavern of the Taekguk Warriors, a US-based Korean football site, had just arrived at Heathrow and was on his way into town. And as … [Read More]

2012 Travel Diary 3: Bugaksan to Daehakro

Seoul, Saturday 24 March 2012. There’s time to kill before our evening appointment in Daehakro, so we go for a stroll in Samcheong-dong, along with most of the rest of Seoul. It’s 5pm on a pleasant Saturday afternoon, and young couples amble with an charming lack of purpose, getting in your way if you want to … [Read More]

A look back at 2011 – part 3

In the final part of our look back at 2011, we summarise some of the news stories which caught our eye. China This year the region’s biggest economy continued flexing its muscles: it conducted the first test flight of its new stealth fighter, announced that it had deployed stealth missile speedboats in the East China … [Read More]

Modern Korean Cinema features gangsters for a week

Check out Jopok Week on Modern Korean Cinema for reviews of Im Kwon-taek’s classic General’s Son 1 2 and 3, Kim Sung-su’s Beat, Song Neung-han’s No 3, Jang Hyeon-su’s Born to Kill, guest essays by Darcy Paquet and Connor McMorran on gangster comedy, by Rowena Santos Aquino on Masculinity and Beauty, plus box office reports … [Read More]

A last look back at 2010

We’ve digested the albums, films, sporting events and books of the year, and reviewed some of the memorable stories of 2010 in our Quiz of the Year. Here are some of the other things we noted in 2010 which didn’t quite make it into any of those articles. 2010: a year of anniversaries It was … [Read More]

Who’s Who Two

You take your eye off the ball for a couple of months, and everything changes. A while ago, I wrote an article for The East newspaper entitled Who’s Who in the Korean Blogosphere highlighting, in the limited space available, some of the top K-blogs out there. It generated a certain amount of comment, the gist … [Read More]