Korea News 2020–2026: Pandemic, Martial Law, Elections

Have a coffee near Gwanghwamun on a weekend and you’ll see the square filled with flags. In the alley beside Exit 1 of Itaewon Station, flowers have been laid. Hospital intake forms now record your international age, and on the subway, phone screens are lit up with stock-trading apps. Once you know what Korea has been through since 2020, these scenes start to look a little different.

2020–2026 at a glance

📅 The headline news of each year and what it left behind (as of October 2026, updated every December)

What happened in Korea during COVID-19? (2020–2021)

2020 — Mask rationing and Parasite

Korea’s first COVID-19 case was confirmed on January 20, 2020. When masks sold out, the government introduced maseukeu obuje on March 9, a five-day rotation that let you buy public masks at pharmacies only on the weekday matching the last digit of your birth year. The public mask system ended on July 12. From June, entering high-risk venues such as karaoke rooms and clubs meant scanning a QR code for the jeonja churip myeongbu, an electronic entry log.

On February 9 that year (local time), Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite took four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. It was the first film not in English to win Best Picture.

Now in Seoul: Wearing a mask when you have a cold, and the hand sanitizer at building entrances and by the elevators, are both leftovers from this period. Korea’s box-office records are collected in Korea’s all-time box office ranking.

2021 — Level 4 distancing and Squid Game

On July 12, 2021, the Seoul metropolitan area moved to Level 4, the highest tier of social distancing, and after 6 p.m. no more than two people could gather. A dangyejeok ilsang hoebok, or gradual return to normal life, began on November 1, but cases climbed again and full reopening slipped into the following year.

Squid Game, released on Netflix on September 17, became a global hit. The following year it won Emmys for directing (Hwang Dong-hyuk) and lead actor (Lee Jung-jae).

Now in Seoul: A Korean drama on Netflix’s home screen is nothing unusual anymore. What Koreans themselves actually watch is covered in What Koreans watch: OTT and TV.

How did Korea change once the pandemic ended? (2022–2023)

2022 — Cheong Wa Dae opens, and October 29

Social distancing was fully lifted on April 18, 2022. On May 10 the presidential office moved to Yongsan and Cheong Wa Dae opened to the public, and on August 6 a larger Gwanghwamun Square reopened. On October 15 a fire at a data center in Pangyo knocked KakaoTalk out for hours, and Koreans coined katok meoktong, roughly “KakaoTalk went dead.”

On the night of October 29, ahead of Halloween, a mass crowd crush occurred in a narrow, packed alley in Itaewon. The official number of victims had been counted as 159. According to Edaily, in June 2026 the Ministry of the Interior and Safety also recognized as a victim a local merchant who had helped with the rescue and later died after suffering trauma, bringing the figure to 160. In Korea it is called the 10·29 Itaewon chamsa, the October 29 Itaewon disaster.

Now in Seoul: Beside Exit 1 of Itaewon Station, the alley where it happened became a memorial space in 2023, the ‘10.29 Memory and Safety Path’. According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, the government’s fourth-anniversary memorial ceremony was announced for 10:29 a.m. on October 29, 2026, at Gwanghwamun Square. Safety measures for the Halloween season are in Itaewon Halloween 2026: crowd safety, and the neighborhood’s mood today is in Itaewon 2026: what came back.

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2023 — International age, the Jamboree and the Expo

On June 1, 2023, the COVID-19 crisis level was lowered, and the endemic phase began in all but name. On June 28, amendments to the Civil Act and the Framework Act on Administration unified age in law and administration under man nai, international age.

In August, the World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum in North Jeolla ran into a heatwave and operational problems, and with a typhoon on the way, every participant left the campsite on August 8. The closing ceremony took place on August 11 as a K-pop concert at Seoul World Cup Stadium. Then on November 28 (local time), in the vote to host World Expo 2030, Busan received 29 votes and lost to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which received 119.

Now in Seoul: The age written on hospital forms, hotel bookings and contracts is always international age. In conversation, though, a different number still turns up. The reason is in How Korean age counting works.

What happened after Korea's martial law crisis? (2024–2026)

2024 — A Nobel Prize, martial law and the Jeju Air disaster

On February 6, the government announced it would increase medical school admissions by 2,000, and trainee doctors left their hospitals. The uijeong galdeung, the standoff between the government and the medical community, carried on into the next year. Admissions for the 2026 academic year went back to the pre-increase level of 3,058, and in February 2026 the government settled on a new plan to add 490 places from the 2027 academic year. On October 10, novelist Han Kang was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Korean to receive it.

At 10:27 p.m. on December 3, then-president Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law. Around 1 a.m. on December 4, the National Assembly passed a resolution demanding it be lifted, with all 190 members present voting in favor, and martial law was lifted at around 4:30 a.m. the same morning after a cabinet meeting. On December 14, the National Assembly passed a motion to impeach the president. In Korea this is known as the 12·3 bisang gyeeom, the December 3 martial law.

On December 29, Jeju Air flight 7C2216 from Bangkok crashed while landing at Muan International Airport, and 179 of the 181 people on board died. The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board is investigating the cause. The runway at Muan International Airport has stayed closed since the disaster, and in September 2026 the closure was extended again, to December 24.

Now in Seoul: Big bookstores such as Kyobo Book Centre in Gwanghwamun still give Han Kang’s books a prominent spot. For picking a bookstore, see Seoul’s big bookstores, the local view. For the aviation safety record, see Korea’s airline accident history.

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2025 — Removal from office, an early election and KPop Demon Hunters

At 11:22 a.m. on April 4, 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled, with all eight justices in agreement, to remove the president from office. In the 21st presidential election on June 3, Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung won and took office the next day. A Korea–US tariff deal was reached at the end of July, and Gyeongju hosted the APEC summit from October 31 to November 1. On October 27, the KOSPI closed above 4,000 for the first time.

Incidents that reached into everyday life kept coming, too. It started with a hack of SK Telecom’s USIM data in April, followed by personal data leaks at KT, Lotte Card and Coupang. On September 26, a fire at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon took a large share of government online services offline. Meanwhile, the animated film Kedeheon, Korean shorthand for KPop Demon Hunters, came out on Netflix in June and became a worldwide hit, and fans who wanted to see its Korean culture for themselves started showing up at museums.

Cheong Wa Dae closed to visitors on July 31, 2025, to prepare for the presidential office’s return. According to press reports, the president began working from the Cheong Wa Dae office on December 29.

Now in Seoul: According to Newsis, the National Museum of Korea drew about 6.5 million visitors in 2025, its highest ever, and the museum shop is still packed. Shopping tips are in the Seoul museum goods shopping guide. As of October 2026, the Cheong Wa Dae grounds can’t be toured freely the way they could before. Realistically, you can look around the Cheong Wa Dae Sarangchae right in front and walk the trails nearby.

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2026 — A first verdict, local elections and a record year (as of October)

On February 19, 2026, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to life imprisonment at first instance on the charge of leading an insurrection. Both Yoon’s side and the insurrection special counsel team appealed, and Yoon’s side maintains that he is not guilty. According to Money Today, the Seoul High Court plans to close arguments in the appeal in early November, and as of October 2026 no date has been set for the ruling.

In the 9th nationwide local elections on June 3, there were 16 races for metropolitan mayor and provincial governor (reflecting the merger of South Jeolla and Gwangju). The Democratic Party won 12 and the People Power Party won 4, and turnout was 61.0%. In Seoul, People Power Party candidate Oh Se-hoon was elected, making him the city’s first five-term mayor. At the World Cup in North America in June, Korea beat Czechia in its opening group match but finished with one win and two losses and did not reach the round of 32.

Tourism set a new record. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that this year’s foreign arrivals passed last year’s annual record (about 18.94 million) around October 27. The stock-market fever has kept going as well, and people checking trading apps on the subway are now a common sight.

Now in Seoul: Gwanghwamun Square and the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall still take turns hosting rallies and festivals. For the numbers, see Korea tourism record 2026 and Samjeon-Nix fever and Korea’s retail investors. For political parties and protest culture, see Korea’s political parties and protests.

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Is it OK to travel to Korea right now?

Yes. The political situation that began in the winter of 2024 moved step by step through a National Assembly resolution, a Constitutional Court ruling, an election and trials, and the whole time the subway, tourist sites and shops kept running as usual. The one change travelers actually notice is the occasional weekend rally downtown.

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