BTS will holda free comeback concert at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square on March 20, coinciding with the release of their fifth full album, ARIRANG. The performance will mark BTS’s first full-group stage in three years and nine months following the group’s military service hiatus, and is reportedlythe first solo concert by a specific K-pop group at Gwanghwamun Square.

South Korea’s political landscape saw a fresh wave of high-profile scrutiny this week, as two separate investigations highlighted rising tensions over ethics enforcement, institutional credibility, and the politicization of oversight.

Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reopened one of Northeast Asia’s most sensitive territorial disputes this week after formally assertingthat Dokdo, or Takeshima in Japan, is Japanese territory in her opening policy address. The statement mirrored the long-standing position of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which maintainsthe claim on its official “Takeshima” page. But the timing and political tone carried particular weight as President Lee Jae Myung has made stabilizing relations with Japan a pillar of his early foreign policy, and this symbolic move risks disrupting that trajectory.

South Korea held the first official memorial service for the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush tragedy on October 29, 2025, marking the third anniversary of the disaster that claimed 159 lives. The government invitedthe families of foreign and Korean victims to join government officials, civic groups, and members of the public at Gwanghwamun Square for the occasion, with roughly 800 people in attendance.

NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang arrivedin Seoul in late October, and his visit quickly became one of the most closely watched moments of the APEC week. Between a keynote at the APEC CEO Summit, meetings with Korea’s most powerful business leaders, and a surprise fried chicken-and-soju moment that delighted Korean media, Huang’s trip carried significance far beyond simple corporate outreach.