ASIA INSIGHT: Summer arrives earlier amid changing climate across Asia SEOUL, May 15 (AJP) - South Korea is beginning to feel like summer much earlier than usual. This week, temperatures in and around the capital hovered around 30 degrees Celsius in mid-May, a time when spring weather would normally still be mild. The temperatures felt more like late July than the weeks before the annual monsoon season. The heat itself may not seem shocking in a country with four distinct seasons, known for humid summers, but what stands out is how early it arrived. As May 15, 2026

AJP Korea-India Essay Contest Winner: Grand Prize SEOUL, May 15 (AJP) - There is a particular kind of magic that happens when two ancient civilizations recognize themselves in each other. It does not announce itself loudly. It arrives quietly — in the similarity between t May 15, 2026

AJP Korea-India Essay Contest Winner: Gold Prize SEOUL, May 15 (AJP) - In Hindi, there is a word called "kal." It means both “yesterday” and “tomorrow.” When I first learned this word as a Hindi major in college, I thought it felt very much May 15, 2026

AJP Korea-India Essay Contest Winner: Silver Prize SEOUL, May 15 (AJP) - Winter of 2019, Found in White Silence One winter day, when worries about my future had reached even the tips of my toes, I found myself wandering through Bukchon Hanok Village as if I were being pulle May 15, 2026

K-Game: Subnautica 2 dives into early access, lonelier than it looks SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - Most survival games this reviewer has lived inside — Rust, Minecraft, Terraria, Core Keeper — share a comfortable rhythm: gather, build, defend, repeat. Fishing is a life-hobby for this reviewer, an in-game delicacy for such survival games as well. "Subnautica 2," which entered early access on Friday at zero a.m. KST, breaks that rhythm in two specific places. The fish want to eat you. And you cannot breathe. That combination — preda May 15, 2026

Asia Deep Insight: Trump and Xi in the Shadow of the Thucydides Trap BEIJING, May 14 (AJP) -long the stone paths of the Temple of Heaven, beneath crimson walls and fading imperial roofs, President Donald Trump of the United States and President Xi Jinping of China walked side by side on May 14, 2026. The atmosphere was neither openly confrontational nor genuinely warm. It carried something more consequential: the careful restraint of two powers that understand they are now shaping the architecture of the twenty-first century. Later th May 15, 2026

China Insight: Will the historic Beijing summit mark a new milestone in G2 era? The world once again turned its eyes to the rain-soaked paths of the Temple of Heaven. President Donald Trump of the United States and President Xi Jinping of China walked side by side. There were few aides around them. With only interpreters nearby, the two leaders moved slowly between the red walls and wet stone paths of one of China’s most symbolically charged imperial sites. It was not merely a diplomatic scene. It was an image asking a larger question: where is the wor May 14, 2026

Firefighters flex for burn victims in Seoul charity bodybuilding contest SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - Muscles, rescue gear and stage lights filled a Seoul fire academy on Thursday as firefighters stepped briefly away from emergency calls to compete for a place in one of the city’s most unusual charity campaigns. The Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters held its 15th annual “Bodybuilder Firefighter Contest” at the Seoul Fire Academy in northwestern Seoul, where 29 firefighters — including 25 men and four women — compete May 14, 2026

Annual rose festival set to open in Seoul this week SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - A flower festival featuring roses in full bloom is set to open in Seoul's northeastern district of Jungnang this week. According to district officials, the annual rose festival, famous for its 5.45-kilometer flower tunnel, will begin with a walking event on Friday taking a strool along riverside trails and run through May 23. This year's event, now in its 18th year, features some 320,000 roses across 232 varieties, lining walking trails along the J May 14, 2026

Air Force chief to accelerate F-5 phaseout, prepare manned-unmanned combat systems SEOUL, May 14 (AJP) - Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Son Seok-rak said South Korea will accelerate the phaseout of its aging F-5 fighter jets from 2030 to 2027, as the Air Force prepares to shift toward manned-unmanned combat systems. “We are preparing to withdraw the F-5 fighter jets from service before the end of next year,” Son said during a meeting with defense ministry correspondents in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday. The F-5 has long served as one of t May 14, 2026