The Dark Side of Seoul Podcast

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A car exploded in Shawn’s neighborhood, setting off a chain reaction that destroyed multiple vehicles and exposed a brutal insurance loophole in Korea.

In this Fun Sized episode, Joe and Shawn discuss the recent fire involving a smoking vehicle that erupted near a GS25 convenience store, igniting a nearby van and damaging surrounding buildings. The discussion quickly turns to the aftermath, where the owner of the destroyed van discovered his insurance would not pay because the vehicle had allegedly been parked improperly.

The result: roughly 20 million won out of...

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AI scams are getting weirder.

In this Fun Sized episode, Joe and Shawn discuss the rise of biometric crime in Korea and how AI tools can now potentially lift fingerprints from ordinary photos posted online. Korean security experts are warning that common hand gestures like peace signs and finger hearts may expose enough detail for criminals to recreate biometric data.

The hosts explore why Korea is especially vulnerable due to its high-tech culture, selfie habits, and long history with phishing and cybercrime. They also look at how AI is...

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“Koreans are better surgeons because they use metal chopsticks.”

“Korean grammar makes people more emotionally intelligent.”

“Korean relationships are deeper because the language has honorifics.”

You’ve probably heard some version of these before.

In this Fun Sized episode, we look at some of the strangest Korean nationalist myths, where they come from, why people believe them, and how “gukbbong” culture keeps creating new ones.

Inspired by a satirical flyer by Michael Hurt of Seoul Street Studios.

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Flashing and public indecency have been a problem in Korea for decades, but recent cases suggest the issue may be getting worse.

In this Fun Sized episode, we look at the rise in flashing incidents across South Korea, including cases involving schools, parks, buses, apartment complexes, and public transportation. We also explore the psychology behind exhibitionism, the surprisingly light punishments often given to offenders, and why Korea refers to flashers as “Burberry Men.”

Yes. Really.

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Isang Yun was one of Korea’s most important composers, blending traditional Korean sounds with modern European music.

But in 1967, he was kidnapped off the streets of West Berlin by South Korean agents, tortured, and sentenced to death.

In this episode, we explore Yun’s life, his music, and the political forces that turned a composer into a target. From his early years under Japanese rule to his exile in Germany, this is the story of an artist caught between ideology, identity, and power.

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We’re back with another Fun Size episode.

This time, we’re looking at something that sounds simple on paper: sick leave. In Korea, it’s legally guaranteed. In reality, it’s often difficult, discouraged, or just not used at all.

From teachers paying out of pocket for substitutes to cultural pressure to keep working no matter what, the system doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to.

We also talk about a recent case that brought attention to the issue and why change may finally be coming.<...

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Cherry blossoms might seem like the most harmless part of spring in Korea. But behind the crowds, festivals, and photo spots, there’s a deeper story that most people don’t notice.

In this episode, we explore the quiet controversy surrounding cherry blossoms in Korea, from their role during Japanese colonial rule to the modern debates about whether they should even be celebrated at all.

We also talk about the now-familiar “Cherry Blossom Ajosshi,” a one-man protester who appears every spring to remind people of that history.

From nat...

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We’re trying something new.

This is our first Fun Size episode—a shorter format where we tackle current topics that spark debate in Korea.

This time, we’re looking at the controversy surrounding the sign at Gwanghwamun. Should it be written in Hangul or Hanja? It sounds like a simple design choice, but it opens up deeper questions about history, identity, and how Korea presents itself today.

We break down the history of Korean writing systems, why Chinese characters were used for centuries, and why Hangul matter...

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This episode takes a lighter turn with a “This or That” game that somehow turns into strong opinions about Korean food, hiking, cities, and history.

We compare Bukhan-san and Inwang-san, break down bibimbap preferences, and get into the difference between taxi buffets and mountain restaurants. Along the way, we talk about cooking at home versus eating out, the cultural weight of the Goryeo period, and why Busan quietly wins a lot of these debates.

There are also a few detours into movies, comedians, and the kinds of places in Kore...

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Pet ownership in Korea is growing rapidly, but what happens when a beloved animal dies?

In this episode, Joe and Shawn explore the surprising and often emotional world of pet funerals in Korea. From strict burial laws that classify animal remains as “waste” to private cremation services that hold full memorial ceremonies, the reality of pet death reveals an unusual intersection of law, culture, and changing attitudes toward animals.

Shawn shares personal experiences with cremating two of his pets and explains why pets almost never appear in Korean cemeteries, desp...

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A minor concert rule violation at a Day6 show in Kuala Lumpur ignites a much larger confrontation between Southeast Asian K-pop fans, known online as SEAblings, and Korean netizens, or K-netz.

What began as frustration over DSLR camera use quickly escalated into accusations of racism, ingratitude, and cultural superiority. In this episode, Joe and Shawn explore what this clash reveals about Korean hierarchy, Confucian social order, ethnic “pure blood” nationalism, development pride, and the uneasy place of Southeast Asia within Korea’s mental map of the world.

From migrant labor...

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Winter is cemetery season in Korea.

With the grass dead, snakes gone, and sightlines open, this is when Korea’s hillside cemeteries quietly reveal their stories. In this episode, Joe and Shawn talk about what they see every year while wandering through Korean burial grounds: traditional mounds and stone guardians, Christian symbols mixed with Confucian motifs, rare Western-style graves, pet burials, collective graves, and the occasional unsettling sign of vandalism.

This isn’t a guide to death rituals. It’s an exploration of how memory, belief, class, and modern pressu...

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South Korea became a super-aged society in 2025. The effects are showing up everywhere, but nowhere more visibly than on the roads.

In this episode, Joe and Shawn talk about the sharp rise in accidents involving elderly drivers, including several deadly incidents in Seoul and beyond. They dig into the numbers, the government’s largely ineffective license return programs, and why simply telling seniors to stop driving ignores deeper issues like poverty, work necessity, and isolation.

This is not a blame episode. It’s about how Korea went from automatic resp...

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Our 300th episode!

Pojangmacha didn’t disappear by accident.

In Part 2 of Where Have All the Soju Tents Gone, Joe and Shawn trace how Seoul’s soju tents went from survival spaces to cultural nuisances, then to nostalgic props. From Olympic-era crackdowns and hired enforcers to violent evictions, gentrification, and sanitized “sensibility pocha streets,” this episode looks at how modernization erased a vital part of everyday life.

This isn’t a story about food. It’s about power, class, gender, and who gets to stay visible in a global cit...

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There is no Waffle House in Korea.

For decades, the pojangmacha was the last line of defense against going home hungry, broke, or blackout drunk. It was cheap, social, messy, and human. And then it slowly disappeared.

In Part 1 of Where Have All the Soju Tents Gone, we trace the origins of the pojangmacha from Japanese yatai and Joseon-era taverns to its explosion after the Korean War. We talk about why these tents mattered, who ran them, what people ate there, and why they became one of the most...

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Christmas is often framed as a moment of peace, forgiveness, and reflection. But in Korean history, Christmas Eve has repeatedly been chosen for violence, punishment, and erasure.

In Part 2 of Christmas Nightmares, we examine three chilling cases tied to the holiday. We begin with the Seokdal-ri Massacre of 1949, when South Korean soldiers burned a mountain village and executed dozens of civilians on Christmas Eve — a crime buried by the state for decades. We then move to the execution of Park Heung-suk, remembered as “Mudeungsan Tarzan,” hanged on Christmas Eve in 1980 after a viol...

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Christmas is supposed to be a time of warmth, safety, and reunion. But history doesn’t always cooperate.

In Part 1 of our two-part Christmas Nightmares series, we explore some of Korea’s darkest stories tied to the holiday season. We begin with the Heungnam Evacuation of 1950, remembered as the Miracle of Christmas, when nearly 100,000 refugees escaped North Korea by sea. But behind the miracle were impossible choices, brutal exclusions, and families torn apart in the freezing cold.

From there, we move to modern tragedies. A massive Christmas Eve pile-up on t...

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Shawn and Joe dig into Korea’s crumbling cybersecurity myth and the Coupang leak that exposed almost every user in the country. Korea sells itself as an IT powerhouse, but behind the fiber optics sit outdated servers, neglected government systems, weak regulations and a corporate culture that treats security like a box to check.

From the SK Telecom and Lotte Card breaches to the government’s own embarrassing hacks, the episode breaks down why Korea keeps getting hit, why companies keep failing upward and how a single leak at Coupang nearly shut...

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Shawn and Joe trade war stories from the front lines of Seoul’s tour scene. Influencers melting down in costume, drunk guests apologizing between vomit breaks, bathroom disappearances, oddball actors who steal the show, couples who arrive mid-argument, and reviews born from pure misunderstanding.

The episode digs into what really derails a tour, how guides survive it, and why some guests treat history like fan fiction. Add a little wildlife drama, a clown fight, a Kenny G busker and a heron named Bob, and you get a solid snapshot of what it...

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This is a blog post I (Joe) wrote on ZenKimchi.com in 2012 about the extreme lengths expats in Korea would go to for creating Thanksgiving in their adopted country. I exhume this post every year to remind myself and others that giving thanks goes beyond turkey, Macy’s parades, and football.

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Korea’s modern history has plenty of villains, but Hanahoe might be the most quietly terrifying. This was the private club of military officers that spent decades pulling strings behind the scenes and building the foundation for South Korea’s authoritarian era. Chun Doo hwan and Roh Tae woo did not just show up and grab power. They were groomed for it inside this secret alumni club of Air Force cadets who treated the nation like their future inheritance.

We get into the shadow world of coups, purges, favoritism, region based poli...

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Special Guest: Ron Chang

Korean graves do not always stay where you put them. In this episode, Ron Chang joins us to talk about what it is really like to exhume and relocate family graves in Korea. Ron recently moved the graves of his grandmother and grandfather from a remote mountain cemetery in Yangju to the special North Korean heritage cemetery near Paju.

We talk about Korean exhumation culture, pungsu, why graves get moved, and what actually happens on the day a burial mound is opened. Ron...

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When a Dutch sailor shipwrecked on Jeju in 1627, he thought he’d been captured by cannibals. Instead, he became Korea’s first Westerner—and the first sign of change that would shake Joseon to its core.

This episode traces the arrival of Western guns, God, and ideas—from Jan Janse de Weltevree to the Catholic persecutions of 1801—as Korea’s Confucian order faces its first real collision with the West. 

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The Korean military is haunted — literally and culturally. Soldiers whisper about phantom footsteps, cold spots inside fences, and radio calls from the dead. In this episode, we look at the legends that thrive in Korea’s barracks: the White-Clad Old Man, the Combat Boot Ghost, the Ammunition Depot Spirits, and the Fog Ghost along the DMZ.

We also unpack why these stories endure. Is it trauma made visible? Shared imagination? Or proof that some soldiers never stopped serving?

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Here it is! Finally! Shawn Morrissey's much anticipated book of Korean supernatural encounters is released. We ask him your questions. Will he answer them? 

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Korean cities love English slogans, but rarely get them right. From “Hi Seoul” to “Busan is Good,” we explore how Korea’s branding obsession created a national genre of delightful linguistic chaos.

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King Jeongjo inherited a kingdom broken by madness, murder, and factional greed. In this episode, we look at how the grandson of Yeongjo—and son of the doomed Prince Sado—tried to rebuild the dynasty. From political purges and paranoid advisors to free-market experiments and the rise of new factions, Jeongjo’s reign was a fight to heal a wounded court without losing his crown.

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Kidnapping and abduction attempts are on the rise in Korea, with more than nine cases per week. We break down the numbers, the shocking cases from Seoul to Jeju, and the weak court responses that leave parents furious. From lures near schools to drug-laced drinks, we look at why this trend is growing and how authorities and families are responding. 

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