From the Editor – July 2026

Welcome to July, the beginning of the second half of the year. My, how time flies. It seems like only yesterday that we were experiencing sub-zero temperatures, and now before us is the impending swelter of summer heat. How can we beat that heat without relocating to Iceland? One great option is Korea’s splendid water parks! South Korea features over two dozen major, world-class water parks in addition to countless smaller resorts. Our cover feature for this issue highlights water parks and brings you a firsthand account of visits to two of them (see “Beating the Heat, Korean Style: Two Unforgettable Water Park Escapes”).

In our Human Rights section, we feature an article/interview with a prominent voice at this year’s recently concluded World Human Rights Cities Forum: Pitikan Sitthidej, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Thailand. Our second article in this section concerns Starbucks’ May 18 “Tank Day” promotion. One Gwangju resident writes about the callousness of that debacle.

In our Community section, you won’t want to miss our article on Gwangju’s sister city San Antonio, Texas, arguably the most vibrant of Gwangju’s sister-city relationships. As we are highlighting 25 years of the Gwangju News this year, we bring you an invited article, “2001: A Place Odyssey,” by Julian Warmington, an early Gwangju News writer and editor. This month’s “Inside the Gwangju News” column spotlights one of our current writers, Vibhanshu Maurya.

We have for you an article on what’s new in the world of renewable energy. And we have for you another article on what’s new in the world of generative AI tools. In the world of art, we have for you a Park Yeonhee exhibition that is new in the way that it connects to Korea’s icons of the past.

This issue’s two movie reviews and one book review all depict regrettable situations, but two of them have happy endings. Which one does not: The Land of Morning Calm, or The Pursuit of Happyness, or The War That Saved My Life?

We are reviving our Music section with two short articles on K-pop: one on the planned biggest-ever K-pop festival in all of South Korea, and the other on a K-pop boy band that includes two North Koreans. And as always, there’s so much more in this issue than there is room to mention: sports, upcoming events, F–2 visas, and more. Enjoy.

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