The next time I am in Seoul I will need to go and check out this church:

There is a church in Seoul with no visible cross marking the exterior. Visitors looking only at the facade cannot immediately discern whether the brick structure is a church, a Buddhist temple or a school. A short walk from Dongdaemun History and Culture Park intersection toward Jangchung Gymnasium reveals a fortress-like brick building supported by roughly 10 external buttresses. The structure stands in stark contrast to conventional Korean churches signaled by ubiquitous red neon crosses.

The building is a seminal work by modern Korean architect Kim Swoo-geun (1931–1986). Architectural historians consider the church one of his greatest masterpieces, alongside the architecture firm Space’s former Jongno District headquarters — currently a commercial building. The church has long served as an under-the-radar architectural destination, though entry to the main sanctuary remained restricted to congregation members.

Starting in July, Kyungdong Presbyterian Church has opened public tours. The official tours allow visitors to explore the main sanctuary and an upper chapel originally built without a roof. Experiencing the interior is essential to appreciating the full depth of the unique architecture of this remarkable building.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know if this is going to work because Trader Joe’s has some significant loyalty from its customers that HomePlus has likely lost a lot of:

Embattled hypermarket chain Homeplus is pinning its revival on a new type of store modeled on US grocery chain Trader Joe’s, a leap of faith that has stirred both hope for a business remade and skepticism that a company on the edge of bankruptcy has the footing to pull it off.

Homeplus laid out the plan last week, after the Seoul Bankruptcy Court extended its rehabilitation deadline to Sept. 4. Once 200 billion won ($136.8 million) in debtor-in-possession financing arrives, the retailer intends to reopen all 67 temporarily shuttered stores, converting them into single-floor locations of roughly 3,305 square meters centered on food, private-label goods and everyday essentials.

Taking cues from the US grocery chain’s smaller-format stores, which stock roughly 4,000 items compared with the 30,000 to 50,000 typical of a conventional hypermarket, Homeplus hopes a leaner assortment weighted toward its private label, Simplus, will cut procurement and inventory costs.

“Trader Joe’s is a private-label-focused supermarket selling primarily food and daily necessities in optimally sized stores, where more than 80 percent of the products sold are its own brands,” the company said in a statement.

As appealing as it sounds, Homeplus’s shot at replicating the Trader Joe’s model depends on more than store format, analysts say, with the US chain’s success owing to a combination of strong product curation, brand loyalty and consumption patterns unique to the American market.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Dried reservoir

The Hagok Reservoir in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, is seen nearly dried up, with most of its bed now exposed, on Aug. 2, 2026. (Yonhap)

Even without the small stones in it, this burger doesn’t sound to appetizing:

McDonald’s Korea ended sales of its new burger featuring locally produced corn after multiple customers reported biting into what they claimed to be small stones.

The global hamburger chain said on Sunday that it stopped selling the Chungju corn cheese croquette burger nationwide as of Thursday at 8 p.m.

Launched on July 9, the burger featuring a deep-fried cheese croquette filled with glutinous corn kernels from Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, was originally scheduled to remain on sale through Aug. 12.

A McDonald’s Korea official said company policy required sales to be suspended once three or more similar complaints had been received, adding that there were no plans to bring the burger back.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It is currently scorching hot in Korea:

Temperatures soared to a record high of 42.5 C in the southeastern city of Yangsan on Sunday, as a scorching heat wave continues to grip South Korea, the state weather agency said.

The mercury reached 42 C in Yangsan, about 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 1:16 p.m. and further rose to 42.5 C at 1:26 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

It marked the highest reading since modern weather observations began on the Korean Peninsula in 1904, based on records from the KMA’s 97 long-term observation stations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

It could soon become much more expensive for Korean students who graduated in the U.S. to find a job:

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is considering imposing a $100,000 fee on foreign students seeking to work in the United States after graduating from American universities, a news report said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the administration is weighing the idea of attaching the fee to an “optional practical training (OPT)” program that allows foreign university graduates to work in the U.S. for one to three years on student visas.

The proposed measure, if implemented, could affect U.S. universities keen on attracting foreign students, as well as Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms that hire international college graduates for technical posts, the newspaper said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Ambassador Steel has a tough job ahead of her to get Korea to support the Trump agenda:

New U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Michelle Steel speaks to reporters after her arrival at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on July 30, 2026, to assume her post. (Yonhap)

Michelle Park Steel, the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, on Friday called for joint efforts to write the “next chapter” in the Seoul-Washington alliance, stressing that the decadeslong partnership should remain “results oriented” and “forward leaning.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.