KOREA TODAY
Editorial illustration of the Korean Peninsula with a dialogue bridge across the armistice line

Lee puts a peace regime back at the center of Seoul’s North Korea policy

On Liberation Day, President Lee Jae Myung called for talks aimed at replacing the Korean War armistice with a peace regime. The proposal matters less as a sudden diplomatic breakthrough than as a clearer statement of how Seoul wants to manage a frozen relationship: reduce the risk of accidental conflict first, then create room for negotiations that can also address nuclear constraints.

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THIS WEEK IN KOREA

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WEEK 33
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Lead stories keep their visual weight. Essential updates stay easy to scan. Everything else remains close at hand.

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FROM RECENT EDITIONS

Lee revives the four-year presidency debate, but the bigger proposal is about presidential power

A renewable four-year presidency is the headline. The more consequential part of Lee Jae Myung’s constitutional agenda is the attempt to redistribute powers that have long been concentrated in the presidency.

Seoul POPCON opens at COEX as the definition of “pop culture” keeps expanding

Games, webtoons, streaming, cosplay, creators, AI and XR are sharing the same convention floor at COEX. The mix is a compact picture of how Korea’s content business increasingly revolves around IP that can move between formats.

Busan Indie Connect opens with hundreds of games and a bigger job than simply entertaining fans

BIC 2026 opened at BEXCO with roughly 280 indie games, a conference and business matching. The festival’s real test is whether discovery turns into publishing, financing and distribution after the booths come down.

Record heat is becoming an economic crisis as well as a health emergency

Deaths, livestock losses and damaged crops are turning Korea’s extreme summer into a test of climate adaptation, food supply and protection for vulnerable workers.

KOSPI is back in a bull market — barely two weeks after its rout

The benchmark has rebounded roughly 22% from its July 30 low as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix recover, showing just how violently Korea’s AI-driven market can reverse direction.

Incheon takes the world’s top spot for international passenger traffic

The airport handled 38.39 million international passengers in the first half of 2026, strengthening Korea’s hub ambitions — although disrupted Middle East routes helped reshape global traffic.

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