North appears to build fence south of MDL | The fashion behind ‘The Scandal’

Happy Hangul Day, everyone! Hope you’re enjoying a well earned rest. Here are the stories you need to know in Korea!

In today’s news, South Korean military intelligence has spotted North Korea attempting to build a fence south of the military demarcation line

In other stories, we explore the hanbok (Korean traditional clothing) designs behind Netflix drama “The Scandal.” And we take a look at some of the companies celebrating Hangul Day with special versions of their products.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Today’s top story

KOREA

North Korea appears to build fence south of MDL, raising DMZ clash fears

North Korea appears to have installed a fence south of the military demarcation line (MDL) in the central sector of the inter-Korean border for the first time, raising fears that its accelerating fortification work could lead to armed clashes

South Korean military intelligence spotted the structure in recent imagery and is still analyzing it, according to the National Assembly’s defense committee and military

It is the first time a North Korean fence is believed to have crossed the MDL since the North began fortifying the border in April 2024. Until now, the closest North Korean fence identified was about 80 meters (262 feet) north of the MDL.Read more

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Feature of the day

LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT

Why green, not red, for Son Ye-jin? Inside the hanbok of ‘The Scandal.’

Hanbok designer Kim Young-jin reveals how color, historical research and painstaking accessories shaped Netflix’s 18th-century Joseon drama.Read more

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More stories

Nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed: What Americans want for South Korea

Serve rising youth or a setting Son? Men’s football faces crossroads with captaincy, tensions

‘Diplomacy over emotions’: Kyiv seeks to mend ties with Seoul as POW transfer spat continues

Price, potency and convenience: The hurdles facing Korea’s future obesity drugs

U.S. visa delay forces senior Korean lawmaker to reroute parliamentary audit trip

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Editor’s picks

BUSINESS

Hangul is having a fashion moment — and it’s not just on T-shirts

Companies ranging from Matin Kim to Orion are banking on hangul-inspired designs in fashion, snacks and global merchandise to entice customers

Read more

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Fowl play? Poultry costs fall by a third, but fried chicken prices stay put

The Fair Trade Commission is investigating possible price-fixing, vertised.Read more━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━BUSINESS

Inside the China counterfeit trade taking K-beauty for a ride

Copycat Korean cosmetics produced in China are spreading rapidly through global wholesale and online channels as the actual brands struggle to keep up.Read more

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Through old wooden boxes, Kansong Museum of Art explores the strange, wild rides its treasures have taken

The historic museum’s latest exhibition reveals how century-old inscriptions on art boxes trace the remarkable journeys behind Kansong’s collection.Read more

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