Send us a text 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. Korea's #1 ghost and dark history walking tour. Book at DarkSideOfSeoul...

Send us a text 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? Me...

Send us a text 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? Korea's #1 ghost and dark history walking tour. Book at DarkSideOfSeoul.com Get your comic at DarkSideOfSeoul.com Support the show Join our Patreon to get more stuff https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul.com Pitch your idea here. https://www...

Send us a text 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. Korea's #1 ghost and dark history walking tour. Book at DarkSideOfSeoul.com Get your comic at DarkSideOfSeoul.com Support the show Join our Patreon to get more stuff https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul....

Send us a text 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. Starting at just $5/month, you can get a lot of extra content, including the following: Early episo...

Send us a text 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. Starting at just $5/month, you can get a lot of extra content, including the following: Early episodesVideo podcastsBehind-th...

Send us a text We tour Korea’s “cursed landmarks,” from the Blue House to Jongno Tower, the National Assembly, Cheonggyecheon, and beyond. These sites carry dark folklore, bad feng shui, ghost stories, and political baggage. What makes a landmark “cursed,” and why do Koreans still talk about them? Starting at just $5/month, you can get a lot of extra content, including the following: Early episodesVideo podcastsBehind-the-scenes pre-ambles"Weird Tales from Korean Lore" - Folktales...

Send us a text Our follow-up to Cruel Summer shows Korea’s August crimes were just as horrific. A shaman murdered her niece in a ritual. Couples turned their homes into crime scenes. Babies were abandoned for cash. Convenience store clerks were stabbed for no reason. This summer didn’t cool down. It only got darker. https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Top Tier PatronsAngel EarlJoel BonominiDevon HiphnerGabi PalominoSteve MarshEva SikoraRon ChangMitchy BrewerHunter WinterCecilia Lö...

Send us a text Summer in Korea sucks. This was a record-breaking year for temps. Floods were awful again. Crime was pretty damn bad, too. Big one, little details: headless body found in Taebaeksan; wearing winter clothing - so been there a while. https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Top Tier PatronsAngel EarlJoel BonominiDevon HiphnerGabi PalominoSteve MarshEva SikoraRon ChangMitchy BrewerHunter WinterCecilia Löfgren DumasAshley WrightGeorge IrionKwang Ja MoonEdward BradfordBoram YoonChad S...

Send us a text K-Pop Demon Hunters looks flashy on the surface, but it hides a lot of Korean folklore inside the glitter. We talk about mudang rituals, dokkaebi, tiger and magpie tricksters, and why the movie is both a tribute to K-Pop and a satire of idol culture. https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Top Tier PatronsAngel EarlJoel BonominiDevon HiphnerGabi PalominoSteve MarshEva SikoraRon ChangMitchy BrewerHunter WinterCecilia Löfgren DumasAshley WrightGeorge IrionKwang Ja MoonEdward Bradf...

Send us a text We close out Spooky Summer with a set of chilling Korean ghost stories and urban legends. Joe shares tales of the Wailing Woman, the Red-Hatted Ghosts, and the eerie story of “Visiting the Grandparents.” Shawn brings first-hand accounts from interviews, from couples plagued by unseen forces to political hauntings at City Hall. A mix of folklore, rumor, and lived experience rounds out the series. https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Top Tier PatronsAngel EarlJoel BonominiDe...

Send us a text A chill night-walk through Korea’s darker folklore: we bring together old graves, cursed bills, haunted portraits, and digital terrors. Hear how a man’s midnight pit stop frees a trapped virgin ghost in 1930s Jeonju, why a gruesome urban legend is said to hide inside Korean currency, and how a painting and an elevator can quietly rewrite your life. Then we go online — the Red Room and the infamous cursed number remind you that modern technology has its own ways of keeping night...

Send us a text Shawn and Joe guide you through 11 of Seoul’s eeriest locations—from the pressure-draining crossroads at Sejong Intersection to the ginkgo-guarded spirits of Marronnier Park. Along the way you’ll encounter singing servants of a Japanese collaborator, phantom beggars at Jongmyo Park, wailing soldiers outside the university morgue, and more. Get your map ready, because these spots are the stuff of nightmares. https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Top Tier PatronsAngel EarlJoel B...

Send us a text Turn off the lights. Slip on your headphones. Tonight’s Spooky Summer episode takes you to the edge of your seat with five skin-crawling tales of the unexplained: A lone soldier buried a war widow’s baby by moonlight—then dared to steal her ransom. What he unearthed under the old tree was far more terrifying than combat.Three boys discover a mirror that doesn’t reflect—and a presence that still watches them.A welding student glances at the arc and loses more than his sight.A wi...

Send us a text Ready to pucker up from sheer creepiness? Ditch the cheery summer playlists and crank your earbuds—these tales will haunt your dreams. From phantom hands blocking elevator doors to severed pianist fingers humping keys in a jar, we’ve rounded up the nastiest, most head-scratching Korean urban legends your average tourist guide sniffs at. Think you can handle a blood-red diary dictating murder, dual assassins in black and white, or a grandmother’s angry spirit restless over an em...

Send us a text Shawn and Joe take you on a fog-shrouded drive down Paju’s Jayuro Highway to hunt the road’s most bone-chilling legends: the Woman in Sunglasses, blood-oozing meat packages, and the cursed box no driver wants to touch. They sift witness accounts from freaked-out truckers and local ghost hunters to figure out whether these tales are urban myth or something far more sinister. https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul Top Tier PatronsAngel EarlJoel BonominiDevon HiphnerGabi PalominoStev...

Send us a text We kick of Spooky Chills Summer 2025 with three fresh stories and more. Brace yourselves for three spine-tinglers in Spooky Chilly Summer Part 7: • The Hong Kong Grandma’s deadly Q&A—answer wrong, and you’re never seen again • The Forest Chair that traps souls in a vision of their own funeral • The Subway Ghost who still asks, “Can you take me home?” Shawn and Joe also unveil their top haunted tourist sites: moonlit Gyeongbokgung Palace tours, Seodaemun Pr...

Send us a text Prince Sado’s life reads like a gothic horror: crowned heir, but driven mad by his father’s cold perfectionism, he slew palace servants and terrorized court ladies—then was locked in a rice chest by King Yeongjo, left to die over eight harrowing days. Drawing on Lady Hyegyeong’s 1805 memoir, we untangle Sado’s paranoia, rituals, and possible political frame-up, and reveal how his gruesome death in 1762 marked the start of the Joseon Dynasty’s final unraveling. https://patreo...

Send us a text POSCO helped forge modern South Korea, but at what cost? We trace the company’s origins under Park Chung-hee’s grand steel plan, its “Right-Turn Spirit” cult of willpower, and its risky “backward” build strategy. Then we peel back the polish to expose repeated fatal accidents, toxic pollution, sexual assault cover-ups, and corrosive “POSCO mentality” boondoggles—from F1 circuits to Olympic bids. Steel may be POSCO’s core product, but abuse and arrogance remain its absolute spec...

Send us a text Seventy-five years after the Korean War began, North Korea still defines its identity by the conflict. NK News Podcast host Jacco Zwetsloot explains how Pyongyang marks the anniversary, what myths it perpetuates about victory over the U.S., and which historical flashpoints—from land reforms to the nuclear program—have shaped Kim Il Sung’s successor states. We’ll also hear Jacco’s takes on everyday life under sanctions, the regime’s strategic pivots today, and where DPRK m...