Fans watch on in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, as Korea plays their first match of the World Cup 2026 against the Czech Republic on June 12.YONHAP
Happy Friday! Here are the stories you need to know in Korea.
In today's news, Korea opened their World Cup campaign with a comeback win against the Czech Republic.
In other stories, vendors at Gwangjang Market in central Seoul are looking for new ways to distinguish their stalls, with the latest dish being a fancy reinvention of yukhoe gimbap (seaweed rice roll with raw beef) featuring caviar. And international artists share their views on K-pop's global expansion.
How did the match go? Korea managed to come from a goal down to beat the Czech Republic in the team's first match of its FIFA World Cup campaign. The team showed great signs, especially in the second half, ahead of its match against host Mexico next week.
Who scored? The team started slow in the first half, with its closest chance coming from captain Son Heung-min in the 40th minute, a shot that drifted wide of the post. In the second half, the Czech Republic opened scoring in the 59th minute through captain Ladislav Krejci, who scored a header off a long throw. However, the goal seemed to have woken up the Taeguk Warriors, which scored an equalizer eight minutes later through midfielder Hwang In-beom. Oh Hyeon-gyu then converted a cross from Paik Seung-ho in the 80th minute, with the team holding a 2-1 lead until full time.
What's next for Korea in the World Cup? Korea are set to play Mexico in their next Group A match and will finish off their group campaign against South Africa. The other teams in the group faced off against each other today, with Mexico beating South Africa 2-0.
Caviar on gimbap? That's fancy! It is, indeed! Vendors at popular tourist attraction Gwangjang Market in central Seoul are attempting to add a gourmet touch to their street food items to distinguish themselves from others. One way that they are doing this is by reinventing the seaweed rice roll dish gimbap with yukhoe by adding caviar.
What has prompted this move? Vendors say that they were looking to try something new. “We wondered whether we had to sell only inexpensive food because we are in a traditional market,” a vendor said. “We thought it could be fun and a little shocking," they added. The price of the caviar-topped dish is 31,000 won ($22), much higher than 11,000 won for the basic version of yukhoe gimbap.
Are there any other dishes being reinvented for customers at the market? Another specialty growing in popularity is shrimp wanja, which are small patties made with minced beef and vegetables. The original version uses beef, but a recent revision has replaced the meat with minced shrimp, giving the dish a pronounced seafood flavor.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Musicians offer views on genre's international expansion
Tell me about these artists. Pictured above are K-pop producer Alex Karlsson and jazz artist Amy Gadiaga. The two were recently part of a panel at the Fête de la Musique+ conference held in western Seoul. The two artists shared their views on K-pop's expansion in the global music scene.
What do they think of K-pop's growth? Karlsson, who said the best K-pop song is NewJeans' "Super Shy" (2023), says the genre is an "enhancement of traditional pop." He adds that there are creative choices being made by K-pop that have pushed the genre toward a more international taste, a push that is making it go global. Gadiaga noted that French producers could add a focus on infusing K-pop with distinct stories.
What can help K-pop go even further? According to Karlsson, radio play is still very important — particularly in the U.S. market. "To really go international, you do need to have more songs that lean into musicality rather than just — well, not just — but rather than show,” said Karlsson, stating that K-pop bands could benefit from creating songs that are easier to listen to for international audiences.
“Strong hooks, repetition and a sing-along factor, rather than just going new part, new part, new part,” he said.
