Tuesday, September 8, 2026 · Seoul

Practical guides for foreign residents in Korea

Featured this week

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Government programs

Korean government programs for your city and household

Tell us your city, visa, and household. We shortlist the published catalog in English.

This week in Korea · Sep 6

Lee Jae-myung declines to pledge he will not seek a consecutive term

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Housing

How to Get Your Rental Deposit Back in Korea

Verified

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Korea, decoded

Korean Lunar Holidays Decoded: What Happens When Seoul Empties Out for Seollal and Chuseok (2026)

Verified

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Language

How to Register for TOPIK in Korea and Abroad

Verified

Most read this week

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Travel

What's Open During Chuseok and Seollal in Korea (and Where Residents Go) (2026)

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Visas & work

Is OneForma Legit? An Honest Review for Foreign Residents in Korea (2026)

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Digital Korea

T-money, Climate Card, and K-Pass: Korea Transit Cards Explained (2026)

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Visas & work

Korean University Scholarships for International Students: Side-by-Side Comparison (2027 Spring Intake)

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Digital Korea

Essential Apps for Foreigners in Korea: What to Install First (2026)

The phone apps foreign residents in Korea actually need: KakaoTalk, Naver Map, Papago, delivery, banking, and government. Install order by what works before and after your Alien Registration Card.

NEWSep 4 Verified
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Visas & work

Internal Referrals in Korea (사내추천): How They Work and How to Get One (2026)

An internal referral (사내추천) gets your resume in front of a human reviewer at a Korean company. This guide explains how the system works, what a referral can and cannot do for your visa situation, and how to build a referral path even without existing contacts in Korea.

NEWAug 20 Verified
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Travel

Korean Theme Parks: Everland, Lotte World, and Beyond

Korea's four main theme parks are each reachable by subway or train from Seoul. Here is what each one costs, how to get there, and what makes it worth the trip.

NEWAug 18 Verified
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Korea, decoded

AI Compute Decoded, Part 3: The Choke Points and Why Nobody Can Break Them (2026)

One company makes every EUV machine. One makes most advanced chips. Three make the memory. A plain-language look at why these positions hold and what would actually threaten them.

UPDATEDAug 14 Verified
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Korea, decoded

AI Compute Decoded, Part 5: Export Controls, China and the Taiwan Problem (2026)

Why governments now shape the chip industry more than competition does: export controls, China's parallel supply chain, and the concentration risk nobody has solved.

UPDATEDAug 14 Verified
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Korea, decoded

AI Compute Decoded, Part 6: Where Korea Actually Stands (2026)

Korea owns the memory layer and little else in the AI stack. A plain-language account of the strengths, the announced investments, the honest weaknesses, and what it means for people living here.

UPDATEDAug 14 Verified
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Korea, decoded

AI Compute Decoded, Part 4: Electricity, Water and Money, the Real Limits (2026)

Chips are no longer the bottleneck. Grid connections, transformers, turbines and financing are. A plain-language look at what physically limits the AI buildout, and whether the spending adds up.

UPDATEDAug 14 Verified
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Korea, decoded

AI Compute Decoded, Part 2: The Nine Layers of the AI Stack (2026)

From design software to electricity, the nine layers that turn sand into an AI data center, who leads each one, and roughly by how much.

UPDATEDAug 14 Verified
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