South Korean residents 89-year-old Jeong Nam-poong and 80-year-old Jang Yoon-hui , wearing protective masks, dance at park after their daytime discotheque “colatec” has been closed amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Seoul, South Korea, May 19, 2020. (Photo by Minwoo Park/Reuters)

Divers perform during an event to celebrate the upcoming Christmas at the aquarium in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, December 1, 2023. Christmas is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in South Korea. (Photo by Lee Jin-man/AP Photo)

Embers remain among the debris after most of the buildings were burned to the ground in a wildfire at Gounsa Temple in Uiseong on March 26, 2025. At least 18 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple blazes burning and causing “unprecedented damage”, the acting president said. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

At this year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy, the Korean pavilion has a curious exhibit called “Commissions for Utopia”. It includes renderings from North Korea’s top architects and artists (all anonymous), many of whom studied at the Paekho Institute of Architecture, North Korea’s state-run architectural college, and none of whom have ever left the country. They were asked to create a vision of North Korea’s future sustainable architecture for its expanding tourism industry. Their final products are a glimpse into what it would be like to envision the future after being entirely cut off from the present for almost 70 years. (Photo by Nick Bonner/Kyle Vanhemert/Venice Architecture Biennale)

Passengers from the ferry sinking off South Korea's southern coast are rescued by the South Korean Coast guard in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, south of Seoul, on April 16, 2014. Almost 300 people were missing after a ferry sank off South Korea on Wednesday, the coastguard said, in what could be the country's biggest peacetime disaster in nearly 20 years. (Photo by AP Photo)

A sales assistant poses for photographs with a mealworm cookie in Seoul, South Korea, August 8, 2016. Insect-eating, or entomophagy, has long been common in much of the world, including South Korea, where boiled silky worm pupae, or beondegi, are a popular snack. Now, South Korea is looking to expand its insect industry as a source of agricultural income. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

A fan of K-pop idol boy band BTS poses for photographs with cut-out of BTS at a pop-up store selling BTS goods in Seoul, South Korea, December 24, 2019. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is still continuing in the country, a guard of Gyeongbokgung Palace wears a protective mask with a goblin pattern at the entrance of the palace, which is currently not being opened to the public due to Covid-19 in Seoul, South Korea on June 18, 2020. (Photo by Chris Jung/NurPhoto via Getty Images)