Crossword (Hankook Ilbo)

About Crossword (Hankook Ilbo)

The Hankook Ilbo, one of South Korea's national dailies, runs a small games site it calls Playground, and the crossword is its daily centrepiece. The grid is small, nine squares across, with around fourteen answers. Each clue is a full sentence taken from one of the paper's recent articles, with the answer replaced by a blank: a sentence about government bonds, a gold medal at the Asian Games or a drone demonstration on Armed Forces Day. Each answer also comes with a dictionary-style definition, and a link to the article it came from. The paper says the game is made with the help of generative AI.

Everyone plays the same puzzle, which is refreshed once a day in the morning Korea time with words from the previous day's news. You type the answers into the grid, and your solving time goes on a ranking with other players under a nickname of your choice.

It suits Korean speakers who want a short daily puzzle that doubles as a news quiz, and learners of Korean who want to read real news sentences with a clear goal. The same site has a chosung quiz built from news keywords.

How to play Crossword (Hankook Ilbo)

1. Open the crossword on games.hankookilbo.com and press start; the timer begins.
2. Choose a clue: each is a sentence from a recent article with the answer left blank.
3. Type the Korean word that fills the blank into the grid; crossing answers share syllables.
4. Use the definition shown with each answer if the news sentence is not enough.
5. Finish the grid, enter a nickname and see where your time ranks.

Tips

• Start with clues about the biggest stories of the previous day: they are the easiest to recall.
• Short answers of two syllables cross several others, so fill them first.
• Follow the article links afterwards if you want the full story behind a clue.

Questions