Elise Hu

Many South Koreans have never heard of it, but a library in Seoul holds a vast collection of North Korean curiosities — textbooks, videos, fiction, even ginseng soap. Much of it can't be checked out.

North Korea is a mysterious place — even to South Koreans. Curiosity about life in the north has sparked a slew of new South Korean TV shows.

There is the Amazing Race-type program, in which North Korean women are paired up with South Korean men to take on various challenges, ...

State media reported that the isolated nation has detained a student from the University of Virginia for "committing anti-republic activities."

South Korea is again blaring news, music and propaganda from banks of loudspeakers along the border. At a minimum, it seems to annoy North Korea.

As the world refocuses its attention on North Korea after the rogue nation's fourth nuclear test, in neighboring South Korea, day-to-day life has barely been affected.

Deciphering events in North Korea often seems more like long-distance psychoanalysis than reporting.

So it's not surprising there's a dearth of hard information about the country's latest nuclear test. In a statement heavy on propaganda and light on details, North Korea claimed it successfully carried out ...

North Korea announced on state television that it tested its first hydrogen bomb. The announcement followed a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that shook near the rogue nation's nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, at 10 a.m. local time.

The hydrogen bomb test was "an act of self defense" against foreign threats, the announcement ...

Greater access to child care is central to Japan's "womenomics" policy. The hope is that more day care will mean more women remain in the workforce after they become mothers.

"Every issue that we are facing violates the core principles of democracy," says a South Korean labor leader. The government says it's cracking down to protect national security.

NPR opened a South Korea bureau in March. Correspondent Elise Hu offers her take on the wonder and the wackiness of life and journalism in East Asia.

Street performers are a common sight in Kuala Lumpur, but they weren't always welcome. An effort to bring buskers together, along with support from the Tourism Ministry, helped change their image.

Fast-rising mobile technology has made buying stuff with a tap of an app easier than ever and shifted the way we shop. What were once permanent, brick-and-mortar stores, where shoppers look at items in a physical space, are now often pop-ups first — shops that last for a limited time ...

The South Korean labor leader holed up in a Buddhist temple to avoid arrest has turned himself in on charges of organizing illegal rallies, ending a 24-day standoff with police. Officers had planned to raid Seoul's top temple, Jogyesa, on Wednesday afternoon, but postponed a move to forcefully enter the ...

The term is used disparagingly, as in a fruit that's soft and tends to bruise easily. But millennials say they are building a new economy for their own generation.

As Europe grapples with its refugee crisis, another one is playing out in Southeast Asia. It involves ethnic Rohingya, the largest group of stateless people on the planet.

Malaysia's leader is at the center of a swirling scandal involving millions — if not billions — in missing money. It's complicating a crucial U.S. relationship in Southeast Asia.

Aircraft were grounded, the stock market opened an hour late and police officers gave free rides to students rushing to Korea's all-important college entrance exam.

These days, owners are asking for their four-legged friends to be styled as spheres and squares. We visit the Taiwanese grooming shop where the geometric grooming trend took root.

In a landmark moment, the presidents of China and Taiwan held an 80-second handshake ahead of a historic meeting in Singapore on Saturday.

The handshake marked the first time that the two sides of the Chinese Civil War have come together since the Communists won the war in 1949, forcing ...

A summit between leaders of China and Taiwan this Saturday will be the first in more than 60 years. It complicates Taiwan's already high-stakes presidential race.