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NATO interoperability cited as key factor as Canada picks Germany over Korea in submarine project

Interoperability with NATO was a crucial factor in Canada's selection of shipbuilders for its submarine fleet, as a Korean consortium lost to its German-Norwegian rival in the multibillion-dollar submarine procurement project on Tuesday. Canada’s move is largely seen as influenced by the need to reinforce its NATO ties at a time when the United States’ commitment to the alliance faces growing uncertainty, although the Korean bidder showed enough technical competitiveness to vie with the German bidder. On Monday (local time), Canada selected Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) as the preferred bidder, beating a Korean consortium led by Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. The Canadian Navy is seeking 12 conventional submarines to replace its aging Victoria-class fleet. Since Canada announced the project in 2024, Korean government and industry officials went all out to win the bid worth 60 trillion won ($39.1 billion). “The determining factor was interoperability with NATO, specifically the level of cooperation that allows for integrated training, sharing of mainten

3 MIN READ
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Monsoon rains to drench Korea starting Wednesday

Monsoon rains are forecast to soak many parts of South Korea this week due to a newly forming stationary front in the Yellow Sea, the state-run weather agency said Tuesday. The stationary front is expected to bring heavy downpours into the southwestern and central parts of the country Wednesday before moving northward into North Korea on Friday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The KMA forecast 80 to 150 millimeters of rainfall in the central city of Daejeon, the central-western province of South Chungcheong and the southwestern province of North Jeolla from Wednesday to Thursday. The broader Seoul area, inland and mountainous parts of the eastern province of Gangwon, and the central province of North Chungcheong are expected to receive 50 to 100 mm of rainfall over the two-day period. The southern resort island of Jeju is forecast to receive less than 5 mm of rain over the period. After the stationary front enters North Korea, South Korea is expected to face a nationwide heat wave Saturday under the influence of the North Pacific high-pressure system. A heat wav

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KOSPI tumbles as Samsung's record earnings fail to lift market

Korean stocks tumbled Tuesday, with the benchmark index sliding below 8,000, as investors sold off shares despite another record earnings report from Samsung Electronics. According to the Korea Exchange, KOSPI closed at 7,656.31, down 4.91 percent from the previous session. Sell-the-news pressure weighed on the market after Samsung Electronics reported record preliminary earnings earlier in the day. The benchmark index plunged in the morning trading, triggering a sell-side sidecar for the 16th time this year. Losses deepened in the afternoon, setting off a circuit breaker — the sixth this year and the 12th in the index's history. Foreign investors led the sell-off, unloading 2.93 trillion won ($1.92 billion) worth of semiconductor, substrate, shipbuilding and defense shares. Institutional investors net sold 391 billion won, while retail investors bought a net 3.13 trillion won of shares. Chip stocks fell sharply on concerns that the semiconductor cycle may have peaked. Samsung Electronics dropped 6.92 percent, SK hynix lost 6.06 percent, SK Square slid 9.3 percent and Hanmi Semiconduct

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Q&A Korea's 'fake news' law is in force — what you need to know

Korea’s revised Information and Communications Network Act, also dubbed the “fake news” law, came into force on Tuesday, reshaping how unlawful information is handled online. Under the new rules, “false or manipulated” information is defined as content whose whole or partial substance is untrue, or altered in a way that misleads audiences into believing it is factual. The revision also introduced a new category of illegal hate or discriminatory expression which covers posts that incite violence, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on traits such as race, nationality or gender. Amid concerns over vague legal definitions and potential conflicts with constitutional free-speech protections, the state-run Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) provided answers to frequently asked questions to address key issues. Q. What should I do if I suffer harm from false or manipulated information? A. Anyone who encounters information suspected of being false or manipulated can file a report with a large online service provider, including the location of the c

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Calls grow to delist Samsung, SK hynix leveraged ETFs

Political pressure is mounting to delist single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix following successive risk warnings from financial authorities and the Bank of Korea (BOK), as the high-risk products are being increasingly blamed for recent turbulence in the domestic stock market. Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) slammed the rollout of the products as a complete policy failure, calling for aggressive regulatory intervention, including their delisting, to restore normal market operations. "KOSPI has devolved into a casino," Ahn wrote on Facebook Monday, pointing to the 212 trillion won ($139 billion) traded in the leveraged funds, which he argued has fueled sharp swings in stock prices. "All 14 single-stock leveraged ETFs tracking the two chipmakers have posted negative returns over the past month, with losses reaching as much as 35.9 percent," he wrote. "To stabilize the market, sweeping corrective measures, including forced delistings, are urgently needed." Ahn also urged President Lee Jae Myung to hold

3 MIN READ
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4 decades, still evolving: Inside USS Theodore Roosevelt at RIMPAC 2026

HONOLULU — Standing beneath rows of fighter jets on the flight deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), Capt. William Mathis greeted visiting reporters with a smile before introducing the warship in a few simple words. “This is a floating city.” The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier carries about 3,000 sailors assigned to the ship and another 2,000 with Carrier Air Wing 11. “We go out to sea and we run four and a half acres (1.8 hectares) of sovereign U.S. territory,” Mathis said. “It’s a floating airport, and really it’s a floating city.” Moored at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam during this year’s Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the carrier’s flight deck was lined with F/A-18 Super Hornets, F-35C Lightning II fighters, EA-18G Growlers and E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft. Sailors moved steadily between aircraft and maintenance equipment as the ship prepared to get underway. Commissioned in 1986, Theodore Roosevelt marks its 40th anniversary this year. Yet Mathis said the ship’s age matters less than its ability to adapt. “We alway

3 MIN READ
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Incheon airport achieves 1 bil. passengers milestone

Incheon International Airport has achieved a historic milestone in global aviation by recording 1 billion cumulative passengers in the shortest period among the world's major hub airports, the airport operator said Tuesday. According to Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC), the airport crossed the 1 billion passenger mark just 25 years and three months after its opening in March 2001. Spanning exactly 9,232 days of operations, this achievement reflects an unprecedented growth trajectory within the international aviation industry, outpacing all historic rival global hubs. The airport’s timeline for reaching 1 billion passengers was significantly shorter than other major transit hubs across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Germany’s Munich Airport required 33 years and 10 months to hit the same metric, while Singapore’s Changi Airport took 35 years and five months. Japan’s Narita International Airport reached the milestone in 39 years and two months, and Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates required 58 years and two months. To contextualize the scale of 1 b

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New wave of chef reality shows breaks the rules

The golden age of culinary television shows is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. Moving far beyond traditional cooking shows that rely on simple studio competitions or restaurant tours, a new wave of variety shows is breaking the rules by introducing high-stakes, real-world challenges. At the center of this cultural revolution are two hit reality shows titled "Undercover Chef" and "Street Restaurant Fighter." By stripping top-tier celebrity chefs of their hard-earned fame and authority, these shows have found a winning formula that resonates deeply with modern audiences worldwide. In the tvN's "Undercover Chef," legendary Korean culinary icons travel abroad to work as bottom-tier kitchen helpers under fake identities. For instance, dim sum queen Jung Ji-sun, pasta master Sam Kim and Kwon Sung-jun, winner of Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars" Season 1 must blend into demanding kitchens in China and Italy. They are given just five days to adapt to a foreign environment and successfully get their own dish onto the restaurant's main menu. Viewers are saying the format actually feels like a

3 MIN READ
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Korea's Earth observation satellite launched from US base

A Korean Earth observation satellite was successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday, the country's space agency said. The next-generation medium-sized satellite No. 4 lifted off aboard Falcon 9 at 12:12 a.m. Tuesday (local time) as part of the Transporter-17 rideshare mission, which carried 81 payloads. The satellite is scheduled to separate from the launch vehicle about 2 hours and 22 minutes after liftoff and attempt its first communication with the Svalbard ground station in Norway about 31 minutes later, the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said. The country's first satellite dedicated to agriculture and forestry is designed to support a wide range of applications, including crop monitoring, forest management, disaster response and climate analysis. The satellite carries a domestically developed wide-area observation camera capable of imaging the entire Korean Peninsula every three days. If initial operations proceed as planned, the satellite will undergo three to four months of image calibration and data verifi

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Korea's push to raise retirement age raises fears over youth job market

In Korea's superaged society, where those aged 65 or over account for more than 20 percent of the total population, a renewed debate has emerged over what the retirement age should be. The discussion resurfaced last month after the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) floated the idea of raising the retirement age from 60 to 65. The party, however, is taking a cautious approach and avoiding railroading the policy plan since it is closely related to youth employment. The issue now is balancing longer careers for older adults with the potential cost of fewer job opportunities for young workers. Income cliff A retirement age of 60 is usually observed in the public sector and most private companies, although some companies set their own ages under a labor-management agreement. At the heart of the issue is the income cliff between the retirement age and the national pension eligibility age, which ranges from 60 for those born in 1952 or earlier to 65 for those born in 1969 or later. For those at the higher end, that gap can mean five years without receiving national pension payments after re

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Samsung Electronics' Q2 profit tops Nvidia's record on AI chip boom

Samsung Electronics once again projected record-breaking earnings for the second quarter, Tuesday, forecasting an operating profit of 89.4 trillion won ($58.4 billion) and 171 trillion won in sales in its earnings guidance, driven by a global boom in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. The company said its operating profit is estimated to have surged 1,810.3 percent from a year earlier and 56.2 percent from the previous quarter, while sales also jumped 129.3 percent year-over-year and 27.7 percent from the first quarter. The earnings estimate surpasses Samsung’s previous record quarterly operating profit of 57.23 trillion won in the first quarter of this year, extending its unprecedented streak to a third consecutive quarter of record revenue and operating profit. The second-quarter operating profit alone exceeded the company’s combined operating profit over the past three years, which totaled 82.9 trillion won — 6.57 trillion won in 2023, 32.7 trillion won in 2024 and 43.6 trillion won in 2025. The results also surpass the record quarterly operating profits posted by tw

2 MIN READ
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70% of Koreans back pursuing EU-style economic community with Japan: survey

Nearly 70 percent of Koreans support pursuing an EU-style economic community with Japan, while 60 percent of Japanese respondents agreed, according to a survey released Monday by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). KCCI, which has repeatedly floated the idea of a Korea-Japan economic community as a response to shifting global trade rules, commissioned Hankook Research to survey 500 people each in Korea and Japan. Some 69.8 percent of Korean respondents favored forming an EU-style bloc, either immediately or over the medium term, versus 59.8 percent of Japanese respondents. Support among Japanese who had visited Korea in the past five years reached 74.5 percent, compared with 45.4 percent among those who had not. Support for expanded tourism cooperation stood at 76.8 percent in Korea and 58 percent in Japan. A majority in both countries — 60.4 percent of Koreans and 44.8 percent of Japanese — backed allowing travel between the two countries using only a national ID card instead of a passport. Only 17.5 percent of Japanese citizens held a passport as of February 2025, ac

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Twin pandas celebrate likely final birthday in Korea before return to China

Twin giant pandas Rui Bao and Hui Bao marked their third birthday Tuesday with bamboo cakes, handmade gifts and cheering fans at Everland, in what is expected to be their final birthday celebration in Korea before their eventual return to China. Everland, operated by Samsung C&T Resort Group, said the birthday event took place Tuesday morning at Panda Second House, where panda keepers Kang Cheol-won and Song Young-kwan joined invited guests to celebrate the sisters' milestone. The keepers prepared oversized birthday cakes made from bamboo, a favorite food of giant pandas. Song also presented a handcrafted wooden bench designed so the sisters could sit side by side. About 30 fans attended the celebration after being selected through a "We Love Rui and Hui" online comment event held at the Panda Second House and the Zootopia Naver fan cafe. Everland said the event drew roughly 400 applicants for every available spot. The guests sang birthday songs and shared messages wishing the pandas good health and happiness. Rui Bao and Hui Bao were born on July 7, 2023, to Ai Bao and Le Bao, weighing 180

2 MIN READ
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LG Electronics Q2 operating profit hits record high on robust home appliance sales

LG Electronics Inc. on Tuesday estimated its second-quarter operating profit jumped 146.9 percent from a year earlier to a record high, driven by robust sales in its home appliance business. Operating profit is expected to total 1.57 trillion won ($1.02 billion) in the April-June period, compared with 639.4 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Revenue rose 14.9 percent on-year to 23.82 trillion won, also a record. Net profit was not immediately available. For the first half of the year, revenue climbed to a record 47.56 trillion won, while operating profit reached an all-time high of 3.25 trillion won. First-half operating profit also exceeded the company's full-year operating profit of 2.48 trillion won recorded last year. The strong performance was driven by solid sales of premium home appliances and televisions. Air conditioner sales also increased in overseas markets during the peak seasonal demand period, while continued growth in the company's vehicle components business helped offset uncertainties stemming from the geopolitical conflict in the Middle

1 MIN READ
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Horror books for your summer reading list

Koreans have long known a secret about surviving the summer: fight heat with fear. For decades, the arrival of the monsoon season meant horror specials on Korean television, ghost stories and horror anthologies programmed precisely when tropical nights made sleep impossible. The logic, half science and half folklore, holds that a good shiver down the spine cools the body better than any electric fan. The tradition survives today in summer horror film releases and haunted house pop-ups that appear across Seoul every July. But for readers of English, there is now an alternate route to that seasonal chill, one that does not involve jump scares or formulaic slasher plots. Korean horror and crime fiction has quietly become one of the fastest-growing corners of translated literature, with a shelf of novels that trade cheap thrills for something colder and more lasting. The timing invites comparison with Japan. English-language publishers have spent the past decade riding a wave of translated Japanese mysteries, from Seishi Yokomizo's classic locked-room puzzles to Yukito Ayatsuji's "The Decago

5 MIN READ
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One doctor, one NICU, 100-hour workweeks: Korea's neonatal care crisis

"If a phone call comes in 24 hours a day, I run to the hospital," said Lee Byung-guk, a pediatrics professor at Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital. "I cannot sleep properly, so my greatest fear is making a bad judgment at a critical moment." Lee made the appeal on Sunday. He has overseen the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, with a sense of mission since July 2020. The job consumes his daily life. Whenever emergency deliveries are scheduled or an extremely premature baby’s condition deteriorates, he must rush back to the hospital, remaining on call 24 hours a day. Although the hospital employs contract physicians on duty, caring for high-risk newborns remains solely the responsibility of Lee, who is a specialist. "Even though there are contract physicians on duty, if a baby is born before 32 weeks of pregnancy, I have no choice but to return to the hospital," Lee said. He added that he once received an emergency call during a medical school lecture and had to be speeding back to the facility. Driven by a growing sense of crisis in the medical field, the Korean

3 MIN READ
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InterviewMONSTA X's Kihyun trusts his gut on 'BORDERLINE'

With one day left before deadline, Kihyun of K-pop boy band MONSTA X has yet to choose the title track for his upcoming solo album, "BORDERLINE." The MONSTA X main vocalist had another song penciled in, but a nagging feeling would not leave him. So he did what the album itself is about — he trusted his own instinct and eventually went with "So Good," a rock-based track carried by delicate, technically demanding vocals. Kihyun has anchored MONSTA X as its main vocalist since the group debuted in 2015, with the voice that carries its choruses and its highest of notes across a decade of albums, tours and festival stages. Away from the six-member act, he has built a parallel solo identity rooted in belt-heavy rock, starting with the 2022 single "VOYAGER" and the mini-album "YOUTH." "I chose [the title track] with the mindset of trusting my own choice," Kihyun said in an interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday, at the Starship Entertainment headquarters in Gangnam District, Seoul. "And I think it really was a great choice." That decision anchored "BORDERLINE," Kihyun's second mini-album a

3 MIN READ
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Can an avatar help overcome social isolation? Korea's 'Shy Cafe' says yes

Customers ordering drinks at a cafe in Seoul's Seongsu neighborhood interacted with a virtual avatar instead of a standard menu screen. They ordered drinks while chatting with the avatar about topics covering their favorite songs or whether they preferred summer or winter. When a female customer complimented the character's voice and suggested she would be good at counseling, the avatar said she previously worked at a call center but struggled with severe anxiety. Other customers immediately offered encouragement, telling the character it was not an easy job and that they were doing well. Behind the virtual character was a young person experiencing social withdrawal. The three-day "Shy Cafe" pop-up, which operated from June 23-25, is a work-experience program where socially isolated young people operate virtual characters to respond to customers. During the three days, six young people participated and communicated with around 700 patrons. The Korea Youth Foundation, the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) Seoul-Gangwon Regional Headquarters, social enterprise Not Scary Company and

4 MIN READ
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Major investment banks' average forecast for Korea's 2026 growth reaches 3%: data

Major global investment banks' average forecast for Korea's economic growth this year has reached 3 percent for the first time, data showed Tuesday, supported by robust semiconductor exports amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Growth forecasts for Korea's real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 by eight major investment banks, including JP Morgan and Citi, averaged 3 percent at the end of June, up 0.2 percentage point from a month earlier, according to data compiled by the Korea Center for International Finance. It marked the first time that the average forecast had reached the 3 percent level. The average forecast stood at 2 percent at the end of last year. It rose to 2.1 percent in January, 2.4 percent in April and 2.8 percent in May. JP Morgan predicted 3.7 percent growth for the Korean economy in June, up 0.7 percentage point from 3 percent a month earlier. Citi also raised its forecast to 3.5 percent from 3 percent over the same period. Barclays and Goldman Sachs each projected 2.7 percent growth, while HSBC and UBS forecast 2.8 percent each. Bank of America projected 3.1 per

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Major investment banks' average forecast for Korea's 2026 growth reaches 3%: data thumbnail

Vietnam essential to K-food's ASEAN expansion

Vietnam is expected to drive Korea's food exports to Southeast Asia, according to the Korean government, which last week completed a market survey in the region's key economy. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Tuesday that it confirmed strong local demand for K-food and identified logistics infrastructure needed to facilitate exports during a recent market survey in Vietnam. K-Market, a Korean food distributor in Hanoi, has risen as a key local company in collaboration with the Korean government. At the center of the ministry’s latest Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) K-food expansion plan is a new multimodal logistics hub in Hanoi completed last month. The ministry and its fresh produce distribution agency, the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp., jointly built the facility to support Korean food exporters by providing a way for them to save on logistics. The advanced facility is equipped with rapid cooling and freezing rooms and a cold-chain package, which are critical for fresh agricultural and livestock products. The corporation said the fa

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Korea turns to plant extracts to combat urban 'lovebug' swarms

Scientists in Korea have successfully demonstrated an eco-friendly method to suppress the massive swarms of "lovebugs" that have choked the capital region in recent summers, offering a major breakthrough in urban pest management without resorting to toxic chemical pesticides. The National Institute of Forest Science said Tuesday that recent field trials utilizing organic plant extracts achieved a 59.3 percent control rate against Plecia longiforceps, commonly referred to as lovebugs. The findings offer immediate relief to municipal officials and millions of residents across Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. Over the last few years, the sudden, dense emergence of these paired swarming insects has caused widespread headaches. Although entirely harmless to humans and ecologically beneficial as natural decomposers, the insects have routinely coated storefronts, overwhelmed public parks and splattered across vehicle windshields, triggering a deluge of public complaints. Building on successful laboratory tests conducted last year, researchers shifted their focus to real-world environments

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Editor's Pick

Hate speech seeps into Korean classrooms

Hate speech seeps into Korean classrooms

“Gravity.” When a science teacher at a high school in Gyeonggi Province was beginning to explain the concept, a few students giggled. Only after class ended did the teacher discover why. In some far-right online communities, the Korean word for gravity, "jungryeok," has been appropriated as coded slang mocking the 2009 death of liberal former President Roh Moo-hyun, who died as a result of a fall from a cliff. The expression has since spread beyond those communities, with some students using it without understanding where it came from. “How can you teach physics without saying ‘gravity?’” asked another teacher at the school, surnamed Lee, who recalled the story shared by their coworker. “About 10 years ago, I rarely came across hate expressions I didn’t recognize. Now, new ones appear all the time and even teachers struggle to keep up.” Teachers say such incidents are becoming increasingly common in classrooms. A recent incident at a high school baseball game highlights how severe the situation has become. Members of the Paichai High School baseball team used chants evokin

3 MIN READ

Life in Korea

Seoul garden show blooms after dark with films, books and nature walks

Seoul garden show blooms after dark with films, books and nature walks

The Seoul International Garden Show is shifting into nighttime mode for the summer, inviting visitors to swap the midday heat for outdoor movies, late-night reading and guided walks as the event continues to draw record crowds. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday it will expand evening cultural and experiential programs at Seoul Forest during July and August after the 2026 Seoul International Garden Show surpassed 6 million visitors as of Thursday. The summer program is designed to encourage visitors to enjoy the gardens after sunset through a mix of films, reading, guided tours and interactive activities. One of the signature events, the Garden Cinema, will offer free outdoor screenings every Saturday evening through Aug. 29, with an additional screening scheduled for July 17. The film lineup includes "La La Land," "The Wild Robot," "Mamma Mia!," "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," "Little Forest," "Sing," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Malmoe," "My Neighbor Totoro" and "The Secret Life of Pets 2." Visitors will also be able to enjoy the Garden Library, an outdoor reading space featurin

2 MIN READ

Lifestyle

Ysaye Int'l Music Competition to stage final round in Korea

The Ysaye International Music Competition, a global platform for young violinists founded in Belgium, will hold its final round in Korea this year for the first time, reflecting Asia's growing importance in the classical music world. The 2026 finals will take place July 10 and 11 at Incheon Arts Center in Gyeonggi Province, co-hosted by the Korea International Arts School and the Belgian organization. The competition, launched in 2018 in Liege, birthplace of Belgian violinist-composer Eugene Ysaye, has until now held all its stages in Belgium. This year, 121 applicants from 23 countries entered the competition, with preliminary and semifinal rounds already held in Belgium. Twenty violinists are expected to compete at the finals. Competition director and founder Elena Lavrenova said the decision to move the finals abroad for the first time was driven by both artistic philosophy and geography. “We chose Korea because we had the best partners in Korea,” she said during a press conference, adding that the majority of applicants now come from Asia. She stressed that the competition, built

2 MIN READ
Ysaye Int'l Music Competition to stage final round in Korea

K-Culture

K-pop group KARD to disband after 10 years

Co-ed K-pop group KARD will disband after a decade together. On Monday, the group's agency, DSP Media, announced that KARD will conclude its activities following the release of its first full-length album on July 28 and the completion of its upcoming world tour. "We would like to once again express our sincere gratitude to HIDDEN KARD for staying with KARD over the years," the agency said. "We ask for your continued support and encouragement as each member embarks on a new chapter in their individual careers." KARD debuted in December 2016 with the project single "Oh NaNa" and gained recognition for songs such as "Hola Hola" and "Tell My Momma," building a reputation for their diverse musical concepts. DSP Media's full statement Hello, this is DSP Media. First, we would like to sincerely thank HIDDEN KARD, who have always supported and shown love for our artist, KARD. KARD will release its first full-length album, "Where To Now? (Part.2): NOWHERE," on July 28 before embarking on a world tour. After careful discussions with all four members, we have mutually agreed to conclude KARD's journey

1 MIN READ
K-pop group KARD to disband after 10 years

Celebrities

Rejected 3 times: aespa's Winter reveals how she finally joined SM Entertainment

Aespa member Winter has revealed that she failed auditions for SM Entertainment three times before finally making it into one of Korea's biggest K-pop agencies. Winter shared the story during Sunday's episode of JTBC's cooking variety show “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,” where she appeared alongside fellow aespa member Karina. Host Kim Sung-joo said both idols are often described by fans as having the "classic SM look" — a term referring to an image commonly associated with artists from the agency. Karina said she believed Winter best fit that image. "I think Winter is the perfect example of the SM style," Karina said. "She has the fair complexion of seniors like Seo Hyun-jin and Taeyeon." Winter, however, disagreed. "I actually think it's Karina," she said. "I failed the SM audition three times. I kept auditioning until I finally got accepted, while SM sent Karina a direct message first." She jokingly contrasted their different paths into the company. "SM chose Karina, but I chose SM," Winter said. Kim then asked whether entertainment agencies now recruit aspiring idols through

1 MIN READ
Rejected 3 times: aespa's Winter reveals how she finally joined SM Entertainment

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Opinion

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Top 10 Stories

  1. Korea's push to raise retirement age brings fears over youth job market

  2. Hanwha Ocean defeated by Germany’s TKMS in Canada submarine deal

  3. Germany’s TKMS beats Hanwha Ocean for Canada submarine deal: Canadian media

  4. Samsung Electronics' Q2 profit tops Nvidia's record on AI chip boom

  5. One doctor, one NICU, 100-hour workweeks: Korea's neonatal care crisis

  6. Prosecutors raid Gwangju police station over leak of murder case details

  7. Can an avatar help overcome social isolation? Korea's 'Shy Cafe' says yes

  8. Lee says despite failure, Canada submarine bid showed Korea's potential

  9. Gov't to unveil property tax revision this month: finance minister

  10. Lee departs for Turkey to attend NATO summit

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