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Christmas is supposed to be a time of warmth, safety, and reunion. But history doesn’t always cooperate.

In Part 1 of our two-part Christmas Nightmares series, we explore some of Korea’s darkest stories tied to the holiday season. We begin with the Heungnam Evacuation of 1950, remembered as the Miracle of Christmas, when nearly 100,000 refugees escaped North Korea by sea. But behind the miracle were impossible choices, brutal exclusions, and families torn apart in the freezing cold.

From there, we move to modern tragedies. A massive Christmas Eve pile-up on the Cheonan–Nonsan Expressway that turned fog and black ice into chaos. A chilling Christmas Day murder rooted in online obsession and jealousy. And a violent armed robbery that shattered the illusion of holiday safety.

These are stories where celebration collided with fear, and survival mattered more than tradition.

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Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

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Angel Earl
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Shawn and Joe dig into Korea’s crumbling cybersecurity myth and the Coupang leak that exposed almost every user in the country. Korea sells itself as an IT powerhouse, but behind the fiber optics sit outdated servers, neglected government systems, weak regulations and a corporate culture that treats security like a box to check.

From the SK Telecom and Lotte Card breaches to the government’s own embarrassing hacks, the episode breaks down why Korea keeps getting hit, why companies keep failing upward and how a single leak at Coupang nearly shut down parts of the small business economy. Plus, a side tour through xenophobic blame games, delivery driver exploitation and the weird reality that the country with the fastest internet once clung to ActiveX like a family heirloom.

Korea's #1 ghost and dark history walking tour. Book at DarkSideOfSeoul.com

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Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul.com

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Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
Mackenzie Moore
Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
Ashley Wright
George Irion

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Shawn and Joe trade war stories from the front lines of Seoul’s tour scene. Influencers melting down in costume, drunk guests apologizing between vomit breaks, bathroom disappearances, oddball actors who steal the show, couples who arrive mid-argument, and reviews born from pure misunderstanding.

The episode digs into what really derails a tour, how guides survive it, and why some guests treat history like fan fiction. Add a little wildlife drama, a clown fight, a Kenny G busker and a heron named Bob, and you get a solid snapshot of what it means to guide people through this city. It is messy, funny, awkward, exhausting and sometimes unexpectedly sweet.

Korea's #1 ghost and dark history walking tour. Book at DarkSideOfSeoul.com

Get your comic at DarkSideOfSeoul.com

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Join our Patreon to get more stuff

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Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul.com

Pitch your idea here. https://www.darksideofseoul.com/expats-of-the-wild-east/

Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
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Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
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This is a blog post I (Joe) wrote on ZenKimchi.com in 2012 about the extreme lengths expats in Korea would go to for creating Thanksgiving in their adopted country. I exhume this post every year to remind myself and others that giving thanks goes beyond turkey, Macy’s parades, and football.

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Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
Mackenzie Moore
Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
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George Irion

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Korea’s modern history has plenty of villains, but Hanahoe might be the most quietly terrifying. This was the private club of military officers that spent decades pulling strings behind the scenes and building the foundation for South Korea’s authoritarian era. Chun Doo hwan and Roh Tae woo did not just show up and grab power. They were groomed for it inside this secret alumni club of Air Force cadets who treated the nation like their future inheritance.

We get into the shadow world of coups, purges, favoritism, region based politics and the strange afterlife of Hanahoe’s legacy in Korean society. If you want to understand why Korean democracy took so long to take root, this is the rot at the center.

Korea's #1 ghost and dark history walking tour. Book at DarkSideOfSeoul.com

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Join our Patreon to get more stuff

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Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul.com

Pitch your idea here. https://www.darksideofseoul.com/expats-of-the-wild-east/

Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
Mackenzie Moore
Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
Ashley Wright
George Irion

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Special Guest: Ron Chang

Korean graves do not always stay where you put them. In this episode, Ron Chang joins us to talk about what it is really like to exhume and relocate family graves in Korea. Ron recently moved the graves of his grandmother and grandfather from a remote mountain cemetery in Yangju to the special North Korean heritage cemetery near Paju.

We talk about Korean exhumation culture, pungsu, why graves get moved, and what actually happens on the day a burial mound is opened. Ron walks us through the whole thing: the paperwork, the tools, the shock of what you find underground, and the strange mix of duty, sadness, sweat and family logistics that define Korean memorial life.

If you have ever wondered how Korea handles the dead, this is your backstage pass.

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.darksideofseoul.com/expats-of-the-wild-east/

Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
Mackenzie Moore
Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
Ashley Wright
George Irion

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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.com

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Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul.com

Pitch your idea here. https://www.darksideofseoul.com/expats-of-the-wild-east/

Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
Mackenzie Moore
Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
Ashley Wright
George Irion

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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?

Media recommendations

• R-Point
• Dog Soldiers
• Dead of Night (‘74)
• The Living & the Dead (‘07)
• The Others (kinda)

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.darksideofseoul.com/expats-of-the-wild-east/

Credits

Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

Top tier Patrons

Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Devon Hiphner
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Eva Sikora
Ron Chang
Mackenzie Moore
Hunter Winter
Cecilia Löfgren Dumas
Josephine Rydberg
Devin Buchanan
Ashley Wright
George Irion

Facebook Page |
Instagram