A South Korea fan smiles ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group H football match between Uruguay and South Korea at the Education City Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 24, 2022. (Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP Photo)

Two elderly men smoking pipes of opium on a terrace in Korea. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images). August 1950

A worker works at a plant of Hyundai Motor in Asan, South Korea, January 27, 2016. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

A woman sits in a train at a subway station in Pyongyang, North Korea on September 11, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

A man pushes her daughter on a cart as they shop at a market in Seoul, South Korea, July 26, 2016. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

At this year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy, the Korean pavilion has a curious exhibit called “Commissions for Utopia”. It includes renderings from North Korea’s top architects and artists (all anonymous), many of whom studied at the Paekho Institute of Architecture, North Korea’s state-run architectural college, and none of whom have ever left the country. They were asked to create a vision of North Korea’s future sustainable architecture for its expanding tourism industry. Their final products are a glimpse into what it would be like to envision the future after being entirely cut off from the present for almost 70 years. (Photo by Nick Bonner/Kyle Vanhemert/Venice Architecture Biennale)

“Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival is a rock festival, which is held annually in Incheon, South Korea for three days at the end of July. It is considered as one of the biggest live music events in South Korea. The festival covers various genres of music, but mainly rock music and electronic music. The name came from five main themes of the festival; music, passion, environment friendly, DIY, and friendship”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Festival-goers enjoy a performance during day two of the Pentaport Rock Festival at Dream Park on August 6, 2011 in Incheon, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Photographer Han Youngsoo captured the ordinary people of Korea as the country emerged from war into an age of prosperity. Han Youngsoo: Photographs of Seoul 1956–63 is at the International Center of Photography (ICP), Jersey City, New Jersey, until June 9, 2017. Here: Seoul, Korea. (Photo by Han Youngsoo/The Guardian)