Korea’s political and social landscape was turned upside down in 2025, as the nation saw a president ousted, his longtime rival swept into power and key institutions pushed to their limits at home and abroad. Koreans lived through a year of high drama that redefined the balance of power in Seoul and reshaped the country’s role on the global stage. At the same time, crises ranging from a paralyzing state data center fire to mass detention of Korean engineers in the United States exposed the vulnerabilities that accompany Korea’s status as a hyperconnected, export-driven democracy. Beyond politics, 2025 also laid bare the human cost of transnational crime and technological change. Rescue operations for Koreans trapped in Cambodian scam compounds, fierce debate over abolishing the prosecution’s headquarters and a surge of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cheating at top universities all forced hard questions about accountability, ethics and the rule of law. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, a green light for nuclear-p