Korea Times K-Culture Reporter
Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
The arrival of 2025 marks the Year of the Blue Snake in the sexagenary cycle. The snake, the sixth sign among the 12 Asian zodiac signs, has long been feared and worshipped by the Korean people as a symbol of revival, wise improvements and new beginnings.
The opposition-controlled National Assembly failed to pass two special counsel bills on Wednesday on impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his botched martial law and first lady Kim Keon Hee over multiple corruption allegations.
More than 5,500 Koreans from all over the country came to Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province to support the bereaved families of the Jeju Air plane crash victims, according to government officials on Monday.
A fire erupted in an eight-story shopping complex in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, at 4:37 p.m. on Friday. Of the approximately 300 people inside the building, about 240 were rescued, while around 70 managed to escape on their own.
Some 11,000 far-right conservatives packed the streets in front of the presidential residence in Seoul, Friday, to protest the investigative authorities' attempt to detain President Yoon Suk Yeol over his botched martial law order.
A 42-year-old woman surnamed Jung visited Muan International Airport, Thursday, with her two young sons from Suwon in Gyeonggi Province to pay condolences to the victims of the tragic Jeju Air plane crash.
Ahn Yu-seong, a Gwangju-born chef who appeared on Netflix’s top-rated cooking competition program "Culinary Class Wars," visited Muan International Airport on New Year’s Day to console the bereaved families of the Jeju Air plane crash victims with food service.
More than half of Koreans believe Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and other Cabinet members of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration should be impeached for their alleged role in Yoon’s botched martial law on Dec. 3.
The remains of 174 out of 179 people killed in Sunday's fatal Jeju Air plane crash have been identified, with rescue authorities still scrambling to identify the remaining five, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday.