By Lee Hae-rin For American Kylie Genter, a day at the beach is no longer a day off for sunbathing and swimming. Instead, it is a place where she prays for her safety before diving into the waters to gather abalone and shellfish for a living. What others see as a holiday destination has become, to her, a workplace and a landscape of possibilities. Since she began diving as a haenyeo – female divers who harvest seafood by hand – in January 2024, the work has changed how she sees the sea. Finding...

South Korean publishers are calling for stronger copyright protections and compensation as bulk book purchase requests suspected of being linked to artificial intelligence training raise concerns over intellectual property theft. Publishing groups are investigating suspicious orders and seeking a coordinated response. However, authors and publishers face a fundamental obstacle: they often cannot know for sure whether their books are being used to train AI systems. Kyobo Book Centre, a bookstore...

A monthly trip to Costco has become routine this year for Kim Eun-young. The 42-year-old mother of two living in Seoul’s Gwangjin district used to pick up what she needed at a nearby supermarket, but rising prices prompted her to change her shopping habits. She said buying groceries and household essentials in bulk seemed more economical, at least for her family of four. “The bill is bigger each time, but buying in bulk works out cheaper for the same amount. I mainly buy food we eat regularly...