At the mention of castles in Korea, images of pink-walled, crenellated love motels may spring to mind. Towering beside expressways...
History isn’t without its foibles and quirks. If it’s not lack a of information about Shakespeare, then it’s the real...
Korea, in the summer of 1894, was a hotbed of intrigue and uncertainty. China and Japan were on the brink of war and many journalists eagerly made their way to Korea in hopes of witnessing the opening shots. Frank G. Carpenter was one of these journalists. Carpenter described the city...
Ever imagined what travelling during Chuseok in Korea 100 Years ago was like? During Chuseok, travel in modern Korea is...
Words by Robert Neff In this humorous anecdote from the turn of the 20th century, an American diplomat and a mob...
We have all been taught that aviation history was made on December 17, 1903, when the Wright brothers managed to go airborne for 12 seconds in a heavier-than-air vehicle that we now call an aircraft. But were they the first? Korea’s history is also sprinkled with accounts of flight. In...
Modern transportation has made travel to most places in Korea, no matter how distant from Seoul, easy and comfortable. However,...
During the late Joseon era, Koreans were well-known for their fondness for children—not only their own, but foreign children as...
Photos courtesy of the Robert Neff collection The anti-Western sentiment pervasive in Pyongyang today has a long history, as historian Robert Neff recounts. Much as it is now, Pyongyang in the late 1880s and early 1890s was pretty much anti-Western. The legacy of the General Sherman in 1866 gives testimony...
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the most important events in village life was the five-day...