Korea is the peninsula that sits between China and Japan, and such is the contortion between those two pillars of Asia, that Korea itself is, since 1945, divided between South Korea and North Korea, first as the result of the USA/Russia antagonism, and then as the first territorial proxy war spawned by WW2: the 1950‒1953 Korean War. The conflict stabilized with an armistice (no peace treaty) around the 38th parallel, after Douglas MacArthur—pushing for direct confrontation with China—was relieved from his command. This remains one of the hotspots of global geopolitics.
We have visited Seoul in July (2010) for the ICPS conference and then Fabrice in Daejeon for various ICS PCB meetings, in 15–19 May (2017), 11–15 September (2023) and finally, for the last polariton meeting, in 28 April–2 May (2025). We also have a coworker of Korean origin, Sang Kyu Kim. Although our direct interactions with the country are mainly professional ones, we enjoy some of its cultural treasures, in particular the food.