AJU PRESS ASIA FIRST NEWS AGENCY

Journalist

Yoo Na-hyun
Yoo Na-hyun유나현
PhotographerGeopolitics, Culture, History, People & Photo Journalist
Photojournalist, AJU PRESS (AJP) Covering news, culture and society in South Korea through an Asian perspective. "Every moment is worth documenting."
Latest by Yoo Na-hyun
  • Seoul wakes up to winter wonderland, traffic largely unaffected
    Seoul wakes up to winter wonderland, traffic largely unaffected SEOUL, February 02 (AJP) -Heavy snow blanketed Seoul overnight, turning the city into a winter wonderland, but the harsh weather caused little disruption to the Monday morning commute. Authorities lifted the heavy snow advisory at 4 a.m. While snow-covered sidewalks slowed pedestrians, many commuters left home earlier than usual and moved cautiously to avoid delays. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said overnight snow removal operations kept major roads largely clear, preventing significant traffic congestion during peak commuting hours. In central Seoul, workers were seen clearing snow at Gyeongbokgung Palace early Monday, following the overnight snowfall. 2026-02-02 11:21:31
  • EU envoy to Seoul speaks out
    EU envoy to Seoul speaks out SEOUL, January 30 (AJP) - Ugo Astuto, head of the Delegation of the European Union to South Korea, addresses press on issues from Greenland to Russia at the Maehwa Hall of the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Jan. 30. 2026. 2026-01-30 17:37:18
  • A number ticks down at the family table
    A number ticks down at the family table SEOUL, January 30 (AJP) -In "Number One", Ha-min (Choi Woo-shik) notices something unsettling: each time he eats his mother’s cooking, an invisible number drops. When he understands that zero would mean the end of his mother, Eun-sil (Jang Hye-jin), the meals become acts of love—and resistance—against time itself. Set for release on Feb. 11, the film draws from a tender premise by Japanese writer Uwano Sora. Adapted from the short novel There Are 328 Times Left to Eat My Mother’s Home‑Cooked Meals, the story weaves a gentle fantasy into the most familiar of rituals. At the mother’s table, minutes are measured in bites, and distance inside a family is felt in what goes unsaid. At the event, director Kim Tae-yong appeared with the cast, including Gong Seung-yeon. For Choi, the film is a homecoming twice over: a reunion with Kim 12 years after Giant, and a return to a mother-son bond with Jang following Parasite (2019). Here, that bond is quieter—and heavier—counted not in years, but in the meals they still have left. 2026-01-30 14:05:09
  • Age is just numbers - especially in learning
    Age is just numbers - especially in learning SEOUL, January 29 (AJP) -Laughter, careful steps and handwritten diplomas filled the annex building of Yeongdeungpo District Office on Jan. 28, as graduates of Neulpureum School gathered for a ceremony years — sometimes decades — in the making. Neulpureum School is an adult literacy institution that grants officially recognized elementary and middle school diplomas. Its classrooms are filled with senior citizens who missed the chance for formal schooling earlier in life, often due to poverty, war or family obligations. For them, education arrived late — but not too late. At the ceremony, graduates from both the elementary and middle school programs walked across the stage one by one, many gripping their certificates with quiet pride. Some wore formal suits or hanbok; others leaned on canes or the arms of classmates who had become friends through shared homework and long afternoons of practice. 2026-01-29 17:25:55
  • Remembrance as an obligation: Nussbaum exhibit in Seoul
    Remembrance as an obligation: Nussbaum exhibit in Seoul SEOUL, January 28 (AJP) -Silence settled over the Democracy Movement Memorial Hall in Seoul on Jan. 27, as the Israeli and German embassies came together to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Beneath the vaulted stillness of the space, remembrance took shape not through speeches alone, but through the collective pause of those gathered. Around 150 people — diplomats, scholars and ordinary citizens — stood in quiet attention, their faces composed, their gazes drawn inward as much as toward the images before them. In the absence of sound, memory did the speaking. Titled “Remembering for the Future,” the special exhibition traces the fragile boundary between civilization and its collapse. Works by Jewish-German artist Felix Nussbaum, painted in exile and fear, confront visitors with fractured bodies and haunted landscapes. Nearby, images from “The Auschwitz Album,” preserved by the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, document lives suspended between arrival and annihilation — moments captured just before history closed in. International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the United Nations in 2005, calls not only for mourning the dead but for vigilance among the living — a reminder that human dignity, once stripped away, is difficult to reclaim. The exhibition will remain open to the public free of charge from Jan. 28 to March 15, inviting visitors to linger, to look, and to bear witness — not as an act of the past, but as a responsibility carried forward. 2026-01-28 19:39:22
  • PHOTOS:Mobile game meets Korean traditional art
    PHOTOS:Mobile game meets Korean traditional art SEOUL, January 28 (AJP) -Once confined to mobile screens, familiar characters step into the physical world — reimagined through brushstrokes, fabric and light. “CookieRun: Kingdom Art Collaboration Special Exhibition – Legacy of the Great Kingdom,” presented by Devsisters, brings the popular game’s universe into dialogue with Korean traditional crafts and interactive media art. The exhibition runs through April 12 at Ara Art Center in Insa-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. CookieRun: Kingdom is a mobile role-playing game built on a fantasy narrative in which cookie characters embody distinct values and histories within a shared world. At the core of its storyline are two contrasting groups: the Ancient Cookies, who represent ideals that have been preserved over time, and the Beast Cookies, who reflect those same values when they are distorted or taken to extremes. The exhibition draws on this narrative structure to explore broader questions about choice, direction and consequence. The exhibition features 10 works created by Korean master artisans, each inspired by characters from CookieRun: Kingdom. Traditional techniques such as mother-of-pearl inlay, buncheong ceramics, embroidery and hanji are combined with contemporary character imagery, allowing long-preserved craft traditions to expand into a modern visual language. Through this process, the CookieRun characters gain added narrative depth within a cultural context. Spanning six exhibition rooms from the first floor to the fourth basement level of the Ara Art Center, the show presents pairs of Ancient Cookies and Beast Cookies in each space. These pairings explore five core values—will, history, knowledge, happiness and solidarity. Rather than depicting a simple confrontation between good and evil, the exhibition emphasizes how the same value can take on entirely different meanings depending on how it is chosen and applied. Interactive media art created in collaboration with the artist collective Nerdy Artist Union expands the meaning of the craft works throughout the space. Visitors participate using NFC-enabled wristbands that activate responses of light, sound and imagery. In the final exhibition room, hands-on content allows visitors to see characters they have drawn move through a folk-painting-inspired digital landscape, completing the exhibition’s narrative. “Legacy of the Great Kingdom” presents a moment in which characters once limited to mobile platforms are reborn through traditional crafts and media art. At the intersection of past and present, game narrative and craftsmanship, the exhibition suggests new possibilities for both cultural heritage and the expansion of intellectual property. 2026-01-28 16:06:11
  • KOSPI defies Trumpian tantrums to scale record high
    KOSPI defies Trumpian tantrums to scale record high SEOUL, January 27 (AJP)-Korean Exchange staff beam before an electronic board at the main bourse in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on Monday, as the benchmark KOSPI flashes past the 5,000 mark on a closing basis for the first time. The index ended the session at a historic 5,084.85, jumping 135.26 points, or 2.73 percent, from the previous trading day, shrugging off renewed tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also advanced, gaining 18.18 points, or 1.71 percent, to close at 1,082.59. The scene captured a moment of quiet defiance, as markets pressed higher while political noise echoed beyond the trading floor. 2026-01-27 17:42:43
  • In icy Seoul, the Han River slows to a hush
    In icy Seoul, the Han River slows to a hush SEOUL, January 26 (AJP) -Under the grip of Arctic air, sections of Seoul’s great waterway have begun to harden — ice floes drifting in silence, icicles clinging to embankments where the river meets the city. What is usually a moving ribbon of steel-gray water now carries the weight of winter, visible and unmistakable. A severe cold wave continues to blanket South Korea as northerly winds sweep down the peninsula, driving temperatures sharply lower and pushing wind chills well below what thermometers suggest. Cold wave advisories remain in effect for the Seoul metropolitan area, as well as parts of central and inland southeastern regions. The cold is expected to linger through Monday. Morning lows are forecast to fall as far as minus 15 degrees Celsius, with daytime highs struggling between minus 3 and 8 degrees. Even under clear skies, the air bites. Along the Han, the transformation is stark. Ice forms where currents slow. Frost traces railings and reeds. The river does not freeze all at once — it stiffens in fragments, mirroring the way winter settles over the city: gradually, insistently. Authorities have urged the elderly and young children to limit outdoor activities as subzero mornings near minus 10 degrees Celsius persist in central regions. Elsewhere, dry air and strong winds have raised wildfire concerns, particularly in the mountains of Gangwon Province and in coastal and southern areas. Light snow or rain is expected in parts of the west coast and Jeju Island, but across the country, winds will remain strong — sharpening the cold, carrying it deeper into streets, bridges and riverbanks. For now, the Han flows on, slowed but not stilled — a frozen reminder that winter, at its peak, reshapes even the most familiar landscapes. 2026-01-26 16:02:43
  • Jeju beckons spring with Ipchun festival
    Jeju beckons spring with Ipchun festival SEOUL, January 26 (AJP) -Ipchun — the first of the 24 solar terms and the quiet and unseeming threshold of spring — is nearing. Before buds appear or fields turn green, the change arrives as ritual, rhythm and light. From Feb. 2 through Ipchun Day on Feb. 4, Jeju will host the Tamna Kingdom Ipchun Gut, a ceremonial opening of spring rooted in the island’s ancient agricultural memory. The event will unfold at Gwandukjeong Pavilion and the Jeju Mok Government Office site, spaces long entwined with Jeju’s civic and spiritual life. Organized by the Jeju Federation of Arts and Culture, the festival revives communal rites that trace back to the era of the Tamna Kingdom, when the arrival of spring was not a date on a calendar but a matter of survival and shared hope. Through chants, movement and offerings, the gut marks the land’s awakening — and the people’s. This year’s theme, “Nal Berong Ttang Umjjak, Spring Stirs,” is expressed in the Jeju dialect, evoking the moment when warmth begins to seep into the soil and the earth itself seems to stretch after winter. Across four categories, 21 programs reinterpret those ancestral gestures, blending shamanistic ritual, agricultural tradition and communal celebration. The island has already begun to signal what is coming. On Jan. 25, ipchun chundeung lanterns were lit around the Jeju Mok Government Office site — quiet beacons announcing that spring is on its way. Hanging against the winter sky, they do not rush the season. They wait, as Jeju always has, for the land to answer. 2026-01-26 15:58:34
  • Italy makes final preparations for Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics
    Italy makes final preparations for Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics SEOUL, January 23 (AJP) - With about two weeks remaining until the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics, South Korea’s national team has pledged a strong showing at the Games. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee held a send-off ceremony for the national delegation on Wednesday at Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu, Seoul. The Games will feature around 5,000 athletes from more than 90 national Olympic committees (NOCs), competing across eight sports and 16 disciplines. South Korea will send a delegation of about 70 athletes and officials in six sports, aiming to win at least three gold medals. The Winter Olympics will be held from Feb. 6 to 22 (local time) in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The main South Korean delegation is scheduled to depart for Italy on Jan. 30. 2026-01-23 16:12:13