Korea Life 101

  If you're living in Korea, summer brings more than just heat and humidity — it brings typhoon season . A typhoon is the same weather phenomenon that Americans call a hurricane and that India and Australia call a cyclone. Only the name changes by region. In the Northwest Pacific, where Korea sits, these powerful storms are called typhoons, and they arrive every year from roughly summer into early autumn. This guide explains when Korea's typhoon season hits, the historic storms that shaped the country's disaster response, why typhoons are getting stronger, and — most importantly — exactly how to prepare and stay safe while living here. Typhoon Season Jul–Sep Peak risk, with autumn storms increasing Deadliest (Sarah, 1959) 849 lost Worst death toll in modern Korean history Strongest Wind (Maemi, 2003) 60 m/s Record peak gust (~134 mph) Storm Trigger 26.5°C+ sea Above 28°C, conditions fully favor growth 1. When Is Typhoon Season in Korea? Kore...

  They're here. Korea's annual love bug (붉은등우단털파리) swarm has begun in earnest across Seoul and the wider metropolitan area. June 24 is forecast to be the single worst day of the 2026 outbreak — and with over 6,000 citizen sightings already logged on a real-time tracking map, this year's swarm appears to be arriving faster and spreading wider than ever before. If you prepared in advance, good. If you didn't, here is what to do right now. 2026 Peak Period June 15–29 National Institute of Forest Science official forecast Worst Single Day June 24 2 days away — act now Citizen Sightings Logged 6,360+ 76% confirmed sightings (as of June 22) Hardest Hit Area Seongnam Jungwon-gu Gangdong-gu, Jungnang-gu, Gwangjin-gu also severe 1. 2026: Earlier, Wider, More Than Before This year's outbreak started roughly two days earlier than 2025. Government surveys conducted in March–April across 56 cities and counties in the Seoul metropolitan area, Ga...

  In June 2026, one of Korea's most shocking corporate collapses unfolded in just one week. JTBC, one of Korea's most-watched cable news channels, declared a default on its debt — and within days, its parent company JoongAng Ilbo, one of Korea's three major newspapers, went into final bankruptcy. What started as a media group's liquidity crisis quickly became a story about Korea's broader economic fault lines. Here is what happened, why it happened, and what it means for Korea's economy in the second half of 2026. JTBC Default June 12 Failed to repay ₩20.6B in debt JoongAng Ilbo Final Bankruptcy June 19 Failed to repay ₩22B in commercial paper JTBC 1st Bankruptcy ₩36B Court injunction blocked repayment Subsidiaries Filing Rehabilitation 5 Companies JoongAng Holdings, JTBC, Contentree, Megabox & more 1. What Happened — A Week of Collapse The crisis began on June 12, 2026 — ironically, the same night Korea was playing the Cze...