Knock, knock, spring is here SEOUL, February 04 (AJP) -“May every household be filled with joy and good fortune throughout the year.” On a quiet Tuesday morning, as winter loosened its final grip, the words of blessing were once again pinned to wooden gates at Namsangol Hanok Village in central Seoul. To mark Ipchun — the first seasonal division of spring — a demonstration of the traditional posting of ipchuncheop unfolded at the village’s main gate. A family born in 1990, the Year of the Horse, carefully attached the calligraphy strips, reviving a custom passed down through generations. Ipchun, one of the 24 solar terms of the traditional East Asian calendar, usually falls around Feb. 4. It signals not only the start of spring, but the quiet return of warmth, light and renewal. On this day, Koreans have long displayed calligraphy bearing the phrase: “Ipchun Daegil, Geonyang Dagyeong” — With spring’s arrival comes great fortune, and as positive energy rises, countless blessings follow. The words are often placed diagonally on doors or gates, as if inviting luck to step inside before anyone else. More than decoration, the strips serve as gentle wishes for health, prosperity and protection from misfortune in the year ahead. The family taking part in the ceremony shared a special connection to the site. A decade ago, they had held their traditional wedding and photo shoot at the same village. Now, they returned not as newlyweds, but as a family, linking past and present through ritual. Each year, Namsangol Hanok Village hosts the Ipchuncheop demonstration to help citizens rediscover seasonal traditions that once guided everyday life. In an age of digital calendars and hurried routines, the ceremony offers a pause — a reminder that time, too, has its own rhythm. As ink met paper and paper met wood, winter quietly stepped aside. And spring, once again, found its way to the doorstep. 2026-02-04 17:32:32

Winter Olympics to kick off in Milan this week SEOUL, February 3 (AJP) - This year's Winter Olympics will kick off in Cortina d'Ampezzo and Milan later this week, bringing together around 3,500 athletes from over 90 countries to compete for 116 medals across 16 disciplines. The opening ceremony of the quadrennial sporting event is slated for Friday in Milan, marking a return to the European country for the first time in about two decades since the 2006 Turin Games. Italy has opted to use existing venues rather than build new ones, aiming to reduce both environmental impact and construction costs. However athletes may face some inconvenience as they will need to travel between multiple sites during the two-week-long Olympics, which run until Feb. 22. South Korea will field 71 athletes in snowboarding, bobsleigh, speed skating, short-track skating, and figure skating. 2026-02-03 17:01:34

Winter's last stand, caught on a wave SEOUL, February 02 (AJP) -With just two days left until Ipchun, the traditional marker of spring, winter is refusing a quiet exit. Along the coast, biting winds rake the shoreline and whip the sea into whitecaps, turning the water steel-blue and restless. The cold sharpens everything — the air, the waves, the resolve of those who come to watch and those who come to dive in. Some stand bundled at the water’s edge, hands in pockets, eyes fixed on the surf as it crashes and retreats. Others choose immersion over observation, paddling out into the frigid sea to catch winter’s final, defiant waves. Black wetsuits cut through the foam; boards rise and fall against the swell. It is a familiar seasonal ritual: winter showing its teeth just before loosening its grip. In the roar of the surf and the sting of cold spray, spring feels close — but not close enough to stop the sea from having the last word. 입춘을 이틀 앞두고 겨울 추위가 이어지는 가운데, 강한 바람에 해안의 파도가 높게 일었다. 시민들은 해변에 머물며 파도를 지켜보거나 바다에 뛰어들어 서핑을 즐기는 등 겨울 바다를 즐기고 있다. 2026-02-02 17:20:25

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 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 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 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 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 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 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