South Korea’s monsoon (rainy) season, known as jangma 장마, runs late June to late July. It’s the most uncomfortable time of the year to be in Korea – intense bursts of rain and persistently high humidity.
2011 and 2022 were especially heavy monsoon years where parts of Gangnam suffered severe flooding. Our car, along with hundreds of other vehicles, suffered massive water damage in 2011 and again in 2022. In our neighborhood, nearly all of the parked cars were scrapped.
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Korea has elected Lee Jae-Myeong as President (이재명 한국 대통령) and he will soon begin negotiating tariffs with President Trump of the U.S.. In particular, Lee is looking to make adjustments to Trump‘s planned 25% reciprocal tariffs. These reciprocal tariffs are expected to take effect July 8, 2025 as they are currently on a three-month suspension.
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New power bank rules, which went into effect on 3/1/2025, are slowly rolling out – with plans for eventual individual inspection and approval to carry. In January 2025, a malfunctioning power bank was likely responsible for a fire on an Air Busan flight.
At Incheon Airport, there are information tables setup next to each security checkpoint for departing passengers. Here, they offer details of this safety rollout and provide plastic bags to safely seal your batteries.
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South Korea provides its citizens with a public
Holiday for the (Presidential) Election Day. May 29-30, 2025 were in-person pre-election days with 3,568 elections booth open across the country, including at major transportation hubs such as Incheon Airport. So far, 34.74% of the population has voted.
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The Korea Herald today shared some data from Statistics Korea:
Continue readingthe number of babies born in the first quarter of 2025 rose by 7.3 percent compared to the same period last year. That makes it the highest first-quarter increase recorded since the agency began tracking the figure in 1981.
…South Korea continues to have the lowest fertility rate in the world.
2015 is shaping up to a hot summer. The Korea Herald quotes a Korean meteorologist predicting, “… that this summer will be as hot as last year, based on climate forecasts from Korean and Japanese meteorological agencies and the World Meteorological Organization.”
The article suggests that Seoul temperatures remain high because of “… the urban heat island effect [which] includes surface reflectivity, impervious surfaces, green space availability, building height and artificial heat emissions.”
Our vocabulary on climate, & hot and humid part one and part two,
According to the Korea Times, the Seoul subway will start 30 minutes earlier, at 5am, starting August 1, 2025. Subway use continues to grow and we coveted that here. (We enjoy the subway during the hot summer months though some outdoor bus stops are cooled.)
Want to learn vocab and culture regarding subway etiquette? Asking directions and more asking directions.