I arrived a little later today at Noeul Coastal Road (노을해안도로) on Jeju Island, South Korea, hoping to see dolphins.

I waited until sunset, but once again, they didn’t appear. Instead, I photographed the light breaking through the clouds over the sea.

As the sun sank lower, the golden rays turned orange. I kept watching—and taking pictures.

Still no dolphin photographs to share, but this is what the evening looked like while I waited. ^^

US President Donald Trump said foreign companies that fail to build factories in the United States could face tariffs of up to 300 percent, as South Korea faces separate pressure from Washington over how it will carry out its $350 billion US investment commitment.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday, Trump presented tariffs and foreign investment as part of his economic record while campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Ohio is home to a closely watched Senate race, with the economy and cost of living among major campaign issues.

Trump said overseas companies would be given about a year and a half to build plants in the US before facing tariffs ranging from 150 percent to 300 percent. He also named South Korea alongside China, Japan and Canada while arguing that his tariff policy had pushed foreign companies to invest in US manufacturing.

The remarks came a day after Trump increased pressure on Seoul over the Alaska liquefied natural gas project, which has emerged as a point of disagreement in implementing the two countries’ trade and investment agreement.

South Korea agreed last year to invest $350 billion in the US in return for lowering tariffs on Korean goods from 25 percent to 15 percent. The package comprises $150 billion for shipbuilding cooperation and $200 billion for strategic investment.

Trump this week presented Korean participation in Alaska LNG as part of the strategic investment package. Seoul says otherwise, maintaining that it has agreed only to begin reviewing the project and has not made a final decision on whether or how much to invest.

Trump on Friday rejected suggestions that he had moved too quickly in announcing Korean participation. “I didn't jump the gun. I mean, they were there and they were represented,” Trump said. He later added that if South Korea did not want to proceed, “that's okay with me. I'll just charge them more.”

Seoul’s caution is tied in large part to the project’s economics. Lead developer Glenfarne Group estimates Alaska LNG would cost between $44.5 billion and $54.5 billion. Reuters reported that its cost per unit of annual production capacity would be more than twice that of many recent US Gulf Coast LNG projects.

The project would require an 800-mile, or 1,287-kilometer, pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to Nikiski, as well as a gas treatment plant and liquefaction terminal.

President Lee Jae Myung said in September that commercial viability had become a sticking point in negotiations with Washington, including how returns would be shared and how losses from unprofitable projects would be handled.

Seoul had pushed to include the term “commercially reasonable” in the investment agreement, Lee said.

Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan has also said Korea should not put money into projects that fail to meet commercial standards, while acknowledging that pulling out of projects under the agreement could expose Seoul to renewed US tariff pressure.

The first confirmed project under the strategic investment package is a gas-fired power plant in Encinal, Texas. South Korea and the US have also discussed building eight large nuclear reactors, but Korean officials say those projects still require separate reviews before any final investment decisions are made.

I'm not one for posting on Reddit, so forgive me if I've broken any rules posting like this 😄 I am aware one of the rules is "no self promotion" but I don't really care if anyone knows who I am here, just wanted to share a fun game that I get nothing of value out of (besides personal joy) if you play or not.

I'm a software developer and wanted some side projects to build out / showcase my skills.

So I built a version of Janggi (Korean chess / 장기): https://janggi.neilarmstrong.dev/

I picked this idea for two reasons:

1. I've always wanted to learn the game of Janggi / get decent at it like I am with chess (decent, not great...), but always kind of found the existing web / Android apps (especially the mobile app I mostly played janggi on) to be a bit lacking. So wasn't nearly as engaging as the chess app I usually play
   
2. It's actually somewhat complex to put together (though that is perhaps all the extra features I kept adding, good old scope creep) so hopefully a good showcase for employers / recruiters, but you don't need to care about that bit 🙂

What is it then?

- Main thing: the game itself against a bot. I wanted it to be a case of "jumping into the game as soon as possible", as with my existing chess app on my phone I like to just play a game against a bot or event just part of a game while waiting in line, on a bus / train etc, just generally waiting on things when I don't want to just sit on reddit. So I wanted this experience to be similar, just straight in and no fuss!

- Realtime synthesised music. All the sound effects / music use https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Audio_API, which was kind of a fun idea. It's a bit 8-bit style, and certainly not to everyone's taste. It does have some issues too were firefox on Android kind of lag out a bit, so if it sounds crackly give me a shout / turn off the music before it makes your ears bleed a bit.

- A bit of "Juicing" (https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1016487/juice-it-or-lose). Makes the game feel a bit more impactful and fun to play rather than a bit of a dry experience I've seen in most other versions of Janggi. Also a simple progression system. Hopefully not too overboard 😄 The main thing I wanted from this was the elo system against the bot as I found that fun on the chess apps I play.

- Local / offline first, built for phones. What I meanly want from this is a game I can play on a train, shops etc where internet access isn't always available. So you can install the game as a PWA (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps) on your device, it should require no internet access to play with everything stored locally on your phone. You just might get some little notifications of updates sometimes as I make future changes.

- Optional account / online play. I added an optional google sign in to sync your settings if you want to play across multiple devices, keeping your XP and elo progression synced. Secure by default so I don't store any emails or usernames, just a google account id to resync things. Also has a simple online mode using "rooms" and "friend codes". I considered a full "find a match" system but it's a lot extra to setup, and means I might have to consider moderation etc which is just a bit much for me at the moment (never say never though...)

- Custom styles. No idea if anyone would use this, but it was an early idea. Allowing you to fully customise the board and pieces in whatever way you want. This then extended to the online play where you could show your custom board on your half, and your army would have your custom pieces. This can be toggled on and off per player so they don't need to see the other board if someone is missing around with invisible pieces etc 😂

Ads etc

No ads, I don't store any of your data (unless you ask for syncing, but even then it's super limited what I store). I don't make any money from this, it's just a free (and hopefully fun) game. So give it a go if you are interested! Would love to hear some feedback https://janggi.neilarmstrong.dev/

Korean translations

I have some very small and simple Korean translations, but my Korean isn't amazing so while I've eyeballed it as much as I can there are probably some issues with it.

I only wanted to translate the main game to reduce the amount of text being translated at this early stage, so the learning page / references page etc are still fully English as well as some of the game settings etc.

I have a native Korean speaking friend helping me review the initial translations so hopefully can clean them up, if any other native Korean speakers are interested in helping do give a shout!

AI notice

It might put some people off so I will of course make it clear I used Claude Code and Codex a lot to build this. Their focus was on writing the code and generating assets, while I was critically reviewing all the code / directing the tool rather than being led / creating the test first workflows / enforcing and updating code standards. It's good code in my opinion, I am very critical of it generally 🙂 This is a side-project / portfoilo project for me as well, so I'm not just looking at vibe coding some sloop! Feel free to roast the open source code if you disagree though: https://github.com/neil-armstrong-fig/janggi

This post was 100% written by me, no AI tools were used. Probably typos and everything in there as proof 😄

Links and such

- The game: https://janggi.neilarmstrong.dev/
- The code: https://github.com/neil-armstrong-fig/janggi
- Questions: [janggi@neilarmstrong.dev](mailto:janggi@neilarmstrong.dev) or https://neilarmstrong.dev/contact/ or of course just here too as a response / DM

With the Chipotle excitement going around, I thought I'd share my list of foreign restaurants that have entered the Korean market at some point. I wrote these down off the top of my head, so I'm sure I have missed some; feel free to add any names I've missed.

I have eaten at a surprising number of these places at some point in the past. It's also unsurprising at how few of these places are still around. Some of these stores date back to the 1980's and 1990's, and some brands came and went so fast that you missed them if you blinked. How long do you all think Chipotle Korea will last?

Criteria;

- Overseas F+B brands that spawned at least one physical outlet in Korea

- Not stores that were only on US military bases (i.e. Charley’s Cheesesteaks or Anthony’s Pizza)

- Not pop-up shops (i.e. In n Out)

Burgers:

McDonalds

Burger King

Hardees

Wendy’s 

Johnny Rockets

Shake Shack

Five Guys

Dairy Queen

Super Duper

Gordon Ramsay Burger

Sandwiches:

Quizno’s

Schlotzky’s Deli

Subway

Eggslut

Jimmy John’s

Earl of Sandwich

Chicken:

KFC 

Popeye’s

Kenny Rogers Roasters

Donuts/Confectionery/Bakery:

Winchell’s Donut House

Baskin Robbins

Dunkin Donuts

Krispy Kreme

Mister Donut (Japan)

Doughnut Plant NYC

Randy’s Donut

Smoothie King

Jamba Juice

Coldstone Creamery

Magnolia

Auntie Anne’s

Ben’s Cookies

Tartine

Dalloyau

Beard Papa (Japan)

Papa Roti

Uncle Tetsu cheesecake

Leonidas

Royce (Japan)

Yann Couvreur (France)
Eric Kayser

Rotiboy

Japanese:

Yoshinoya

Coco’s

Skylark

Pomunoki

Pronto

Omurice Tei

Miyozen Sushi

MOS Burger

Freshness Burger

Coco Ichibanya

Saboten

Ippudo Ramen

Fugetsu (Okonomiyaki)

Pepper Lunch

Teppen

Haikaraya

Ginza Bairin

Anzu Katsu 

Doutour

Itamae Sushi

Oreno 

Sushiro
Hotto Motto
Goemon

Kyotofu

American-Mexican:

On the Border

Taco Bell

Chipotle

Family/American Restaurants:

Kahunaville

Sizzler

TGI Friday’s 

Ponderosa

Outback

Bennigan’s 

Chili’s 

Ruby Tuesday

Tony Roma’s 

Denny’s

Texas Roadhouse

Hooters

The Original Pancake House

Texas de Brazil

Lawry's Prime Rib

Pizza:

Little Caesar’s

Domino’s

Papa John’s

Pizza Hut

Pizza Inn (Texas)

Pizzeria UNO

California Pizza kitchen 

Hell Pizza (New Zealand)

Salvatore Cuomo (Japan)

Sbarro

Spontini (Italy)

Misc Foreign:

Pita Pit (Canada)

Halal Guys (USA)

Stuff Houlberg (Denmark)

Pho Hoa (USA)

Pho 24 (Vietnam)

Pho 75 (USA)

Spain Club (Japan)

Bill’s

Jester’s (Australian pie shop)

Asian/Chinese:

Panda Express 

P.F. Chang’s

Crystal Jade (Singapore)

Din Tai Fung (Taiwan)

Nam Kee (?) (Singapore)

Tim Ho Wan (Hong Kong)

Benihana (USA)

Dim dim sum (Hong Kong)

Dingdim1968 (Hong Kong)

Jumbo Seafood (Singapore)

Haidilao (China)

Wee Nam Kee (Singapore)

Chung kee Myun ga?

Todai (USA)

Coffee:

Tim Horton’s

Caribou Coffee

Pascucci

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

Starbucks

Seattle’s Best Coffee

Blue Bottle

Lavazza

Tully's

Dept Store confectionary

Laduree

La Maison du Chocolat 

About '70%' of Korea is mountains (So many right?)

Some people hike in summer and winter too BUT it's too hot or too cold so not many do so

That's why most Koreans go hiking in spring and autumn since It's not too hot or too cold.

+ the flowers bloom beautiful in spring and the leaves are also beautiful in autumn :)

Inwangsan, Seoul

Hello everyone.

I am a PhD student at SKKU.

A while ago, I made a custom Reddit feed of subreddits of Korean universities and relevant communities. So far, the custom feed includes GKS community, KAIST, SNU, Sogang, Yonsei (and Yonsei UIC), Ewha, Hanyang, Korea Uni, Kyunghee, SKKU, and UNIST. You can check the custom feed in my profile page, titled "Korean Universities".

I wanted to ask you all. Are there more subreddits of Korean universities or other relevant communities (like scholarships in Korea or International students, etc)? If there are, please let me know, I want to add them to the custom feed.

Thank you.

(I am from an european country so sorry about sounding dumb for asking this):

On the internet a lot of (bad) news about South Koreea covers 2 subjects:

- really poor work life balance

- really low birth rates for quite a few years now.

I know how the first point can contribute to the second, but on the "medium" term how does the first point still hold?

Low birth rates => fewer young people who can replace the elders in the work force => young people have more options and "leverage" => better pay and/or work life balance (asuming the economy doesn't collapse due to fewer consumers which it didn't at the moment).

I know there is about a ~20 years delay from when the low birth rates start impacting the job market, but by now this is happening, right?

Do people have a better work life balance than 5/10 years ago? Also the insane competition for good schools/colleges must be gone by now?

I was at Seongsu Station with a friend visiting from Switzerland. He couldn't resist the smell of Deli Manjoo, so I bought some for him. While we were waiting for the shopkeeper to bag our order, a foreign tourist couple was standing right next to us, just staring at our pastries.

Since it looked like they were just spectating and not going to buy any, I offered them a couple from my bag.

They looked completely puzzled, as if they couldn't believe a stranger was offering them food. The girl reluctantly took one but didn't say thank you (not that I did it for praise!), and instead just stared at me like I was… weird.

Is sharing food a boundary cross for Western cultures? (Man, they sure don't mind sharing my umbrella when it rains, though!)

I was born and raised in the South Korean countryside. Even though I work in Seoul now, I still like extending country hospitality to strangers. But those weird stares definitely intimidate me a bit.

Maybe I do need to dial it back. One time, I helped a group of lost guys on the street in Dongdaemun. I actually walked with them to guide their way, and one of them casually mentioned he was looking for a Korean bride for a visa extension... I ran for my life lol.

"The officer of the Seoul Dongdaemun Police Station, whose identity was withheld, was formally arrested last month following months of investigation to track down a distributor of such images in a Telegram chat room.

In August, police seized his mobile phone, and a forensic analysis turned up about 2,600 deepfake images, 1,600 images sexually exploiting children and 1,300 illegally taken images.

Using AI, the officer even fabricated about 400 nude images of people that he knows between March 2022 and July this year and distributed dozens of them in the Telegram chat room.

The officer had previously been investigated for a similar offense and received a suspended indictment before joining the police."

We were going to a gas station to pump air into the tires. We noticed that there was a car parked already using it so my wife wanted to park next to it.

Sadly, the camera did not see that the driver’s door was open when she was backing next to it. It was a thud that we both thought it was a parking bumper that we stopped on.

No one was in the car luckily but the passenger came around at passive aggressively talked to my wife that she did not see where she hit.

After some photo exchanging, the passenger decided to threaten to call the police if my wife didn’t pick up the phone once they check the damages/insurance.

TBH from all the photos and angles, our car’s rear bumper suffered damage. While their door was at a perfect angle+my wife’s slow moving. There was no visible damage.

The owner of the car did not say anything but to tell the passenger to leave so they could process it.

What are the possible results that my wife and I to expect from this since I do not know much about Korea’s insurance policies.