Hand a Korean a red pen and ask them to write your name, and many will hesitate — or refuse. Writing a living person's name in red ink is a quiet omen of death.

On The Story Real Korea, we trace the taboo to a real tradition: the names of the dead were written in red — on registers, funeral banners, tombstones — so a living name in red feels like marking someone for death. We cover the blood association, the shared East Asian roots, the folklore about the condemned, and other everyday Korean superstitions.

— Hosted by Jacob Lee Independent production. All facts drawn from publicly available sources.