A 26-year-old South Korean man was recently sentenced to one year in prison for deliberately binge eating in order to become obese and be declared unfit for mandatory military service.

Military service is no trivial matter in South Korea. It doesn’t matter if you’re a globally-known singer, a successful actor, or a billionaire; if you’re a healthy adult male between the ages of 18 and 35, you have to spend at least 21 months in the army. The most you can do is postpone the compulsory service, but you’ll have to go through it at some point. However, if you are declared unfit for service because of health issues, you’re off the hook. One young South Korean man allegedly tried to avoid serving in the military by binge eating and becoming obese. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite as he had planned and he now has to spend a year behind bars.

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Choi Soon-hwa, an 80-year-old woman from South Korea, recently shocked the world by qualifying as a finalist in the annual Miss Universe Korea competition.

Choi, a grandmother of three who turns 81 next month, never dreamed of being in the running to represent her country in the Miss Universe beauty pageant, but thanks to changes made to the contest’s selection rules, she was able to do just that. Before this year, participants were required to be between the ages of 18 and 28, but due to growing pressure to become more inclusive, Miss Universe scraped the rule, thus allowing pretty much anyone to participate. Apart from the age ban lifting, pregnant women, and women who had children or had ever been married were also allowed to compete. Now, Choi hopes to inspire others by showing that health and vitality can be maintained well into old age.

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Park Seo Jin, a young South Korean Trot singer, recently shocked his fans by revealing that he spent over $75,000 on facial cosmetic procedures, admitting that only his eyeballs and ears remain unenhanced.

Last week, Park Seo Jin was invited on MBC’s Radio Star variety show where he openly discussed the plastic surgery he had done to his face in order to enhance his appearance and boost his singing career. The 29-year-old, who burst onto South Korea’s Trot singing scene back in 2013, with his hit single ‘Dream’, had long been at the center of a heated online debate around the drastic change in appearance over the last decade. He was once included in an unofficial ‘Top 5 Trot Singers with the Most Plastic Surgery Enhancements,’ and even though his fans always defended him, claiming that he only had his teeth and eyes done, the young singer came out and said that he actually “fixed everything that needed to be fixed”.

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Lee Hyo Jong, the 52-year-old owner of a bakery and cafe in Seoul, South Korea, recently went viral for her incredibly youthful appearance and nonconformist dress style.

The London Bagel Museum cafe in Gangnam, Seoul, was already famous for its delicious pastries and welcoming atmosphere, but it recently got even more attention because of its owner, a 52-year-old woman who doesn’t look a day over 25. Lee Hyo Jong’s age became a hot topic on the South Korean online bulletin board The Qoo after someone posted photos of her along with the information that she was born in 1973, making her 52 years old. People just couldn’t wrap their heads around how she manages to maintain such a youthful appearance, but some pointed out that her dress style and slim physique help with that as well.

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Hosun, a South Korean dog who suffered severe injuries and was thought to be dead after being hit by a truck, gained legendary status after crawling out of its grave and walking home.

Hosun the “miracle dog” first made news headlines in South Korea six years ago, after going through a terrible car accident and coming back from the dead. She was only a four-month-old puppy when she was hit by a truck close to his owners’ home in the city of Yeongcheon, and her injuries were so severe that a neighbor who found her on the side of the road thought her dead. The man buried Hosun in a shallow grave in a nearby field and delivered the bad news to her owners when they came home. However, four days later, Hosun’s owners heard an animal’s wailing coming from a roadside ditch near their home and were shocked to find their beloved pet, terribly injured, but alive.

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The organizers of a recent festival at a university in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, were forced to apologize after the host decided to give away the water bottles used by the members of an idol group as prizes.

On May 22, the popular girl group Oh My Girl performed at a university festival in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. However, it was what occurred on stage after the group’s performance that made news headlines all around the country in the days that followed. On May 26, several videos were posted on South Korean social media showing the host of the event inviting male fans of Oh My Girl on stage and then collecting the used water bottles left behind by the members of the group. Fans were asked to participate in a talent show for the chance to win an unusual prize – the used water bottle of the Oh My Girl member of their choice.

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Virtual news anchors and presenters have been around for quite a while now, but they’ve gotten so good that Government organizations are using them to replace actual humans and save money.

The provincial government of Jeju Island, in South Korea, recently hired a news anchor to conduct its weekly YouTube program, Weekly Jeju, for a fraction of the cost of its former employees. J-na seems very experienced at her job despite her young age, but that’s only because she isn’t a real human, but a computer-generated virtual avatar managed by a private contractor. The news she appears to read on-screen is also a script generated by AI language models like ChatGPT. According to the island province, switching to a virtual news anchor was a much cheaper option, as J-na and the news generation script reportedly cost only 600,000 won ($450) per month.

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A 25-year-old South Korean woman has been getting a lot of attention because of her commitment to saving money on a regular salary by spending as little as possible.

We first featured Ji-Hyeon Kwak a couple of years ago when she first made news headlines in her home country of South Korea after making an appearance on the popular SBS’ Master of Living television program. At the time, she had become the youngest person in South Korea to win an apartment subscription, quite a feat considering that the odds are usually stacked against young people, because of how the system works. People are encouraged to save money in a subscription savings account in order to boost their chances, and most 24-year-olds don’t have significant savings. But Ji-Hyeon Kwak isn’t your average youth. She had managed to save a whopping 100 million won ($75,000) in four years, on an average salary of 2.2 million per month, but she was only getting started.

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Suni and the Seven Princesses is a popular rap group made up of South Korean grannies in the 70s and 80s trying to take the entertainment industry by storm.

A group of elderly women from rural Chilgok, a county in South Korea’s North Gyeongsang province, is making international headlines for their meteoric rise as rappers. Suni and the Seven Princesses only debuted in August of last year, but the unusual rap group is now known all over the world. It makes sense if you think about it. After all, it’s not every day that you see a bunch of grandmother wearing baggy clothes and chains around their necks, and rapping about their rural lifestyle, especially in rural South Korea.

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Scientists at South Korea’s Yonsei University have created a new type of hybrid rice that not only has a meaty pink color but is also packed with beef protein and fat cells.

Rice is already one of the most nutritious foods available in nature, but thanks to some scientific ‘magic’, it could soon become a viable, sustainable alternative to meat. A team of researchers at the Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, managed to create a rice hybrid laced with beef protein and fat cells. The new pink rice has 8 percent more protein and 7 percent more fat than regular rice, and while it doesn’t yet taste like beef, it does carry a “unique blend of aromas, including a slight nuttiness and umami which are characteristic of meat”. Thanks to the integrated animal cells, this new pink rice could one day become a complete meal by itself, ensuring a sufficient, sustainable food supply for the whole world.

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A South Korean model who became known as the “Angel Box Girl” for walking around in a cardboard box and letting strangers grope her is being prosecuted for obscene exposure.

A few months ago, Ain, a self-proclaimed attention-seeking South Korean model, went viral for a risqué stunt that made international headlines. Videos of the young woman wearing only a cardboard box with four holes for her arms and legs, and two more for groping went viral, making Ain one of the most popular topics on social media. the young woman paraded herself on the streets of Hongdae, a vibrant nightlife district of Seoul, asking random people to put their hands through the holes in the “Angel Box” and grope her naked or scantly clothed body. As word of the Angel Box Girl spread through the streets, she ended up attracting large groups of curious people that the police had to disperse.

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A group of South Korean students recently sued the Government for millions of dollars in damages because their teachers ended a life-changing exam 90 seconds earlier than they should have.

The Suneung, South Korea’s college admission exam, is notoriously long and difficult, and its implications are literally life-changing. Not only do the results of the Suneung determine students’ college placements, but also their career options and relationships, so it’s no wonder that everyone, from the students and their families to the South Korean government takes the Suneung very seriously. During the 8-hour exam, South Korea closes its air space and delays the opening of the stock market to help students concentrate. So when a teacher recently ended the exam 90 seconds early, it was a very big deal with serious legal consequences.

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A South Korean woman made international news headlines for legally adopting her adult best friend after a medical emergency made her realize that they needed a stronger connection to take care of each other.

44-year-old Eun Seo-ran grew up in a stereotypical South Korean patriarchal family in which her father was the breadwinner and her mother was consigned to the role of homemaker, serving her husband’s family. She slaved for them her entire life, but never got so much as a bit of gratitude from her spouse, but she made sure that Seo-ran followed another path in life. She never even allowed her in the kitchen as a young girl and always told her to preserve her freedom. Eun Seo-ran vowed to never end up like her mother, and decided to not get married or have children. To this day, she believes that it would be irresponsible of her to get married, but she also understands that there are situations where family members are the only ones who can help…

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Every year, in late autumn, thousands of people flock to Bangye–ri, a village in Gyeongsang, South Korea, to witness the beauty of a majestic 860-year-old ginkgo biloba tree.

The secular Wonju Bangye-ri Ginkgo Tree is a national monument of South Korea famous for its impressive crown which currently covers a perimeter of around 17 meters. At around 32 meters tall (104ft), it is not even the Asian country’s tallest ginkgo tree, but the way its branches are spread out makes it one of the most visually impressive trees on Earth. In South Korea, the Bangye-ri Ginkgo Tree is often called the world’s most beautiful tree.

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Scientists at South Korea’s Chung-Ang University have created an ultra-light exosuit that can help runners cover short distances faster.

They may not be mainstream yet, but exoskeletons have been a part of our world for a while now. We’ve seen some that make carrying heavy loads a breeze, and others that help physically disabled people move around with ease. But wearable technology that helps people run faster has been pretty rare, especially in the super-light form recently presented by scientists at Chung-Ang University’s School of Mechanical Engineering in South Korea. They created a contraption that only weighs around 2.5 kg (5.5lbs) but can help the average person run a 200-meter sprint almost a second faster than without the suit.

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